Whether it’s the Christmas Nativity or an amateur production of Cats, most parents have had to endure their fair share of school plays.
If your child participated, it’s likely you told them they were amazing – regardless of their performance.
But a new study suggests that this could actually be detrimental.
Researchers from Nanyang Technological University say that lying to your children can turn them into liars later in life.
‘The bad news for parents is that sometimes, honesty may be the best policy,’ said Peipei Setoh, lead author of the study.
Whether it’s the Christmas Nativity or an amateur production of Cats, most parents have had to endure their fair share of school plays (stock image)
Most parents are guilty of telling their children a lie or two.
However, until now, the impacts of these lies have been largely unexplored.
In their study, the team enlisted the help of 564 children aged 11 to 12 years old, as well as their parents.
The participants were surveyed about their use of two different types of lie – instrumental lies and white lies.
Instrumental lies are lies told for child compliance, such as ‘Finish all your food, or you’ll grow up to be short!’
Meanwhile, white lies are those told to instil positive emotions, such as ‘You were great in that school play!’
The surveys revealed that parents used instrumental lies more often than white lies, and the children reported greater belief in instrumental lies than in white lies.
‘Instrumental lies are used to get a child to comply when they are misbehaving, for example, a parent threatening to call the police if the child is being naughty,’ Ms Setoh said.
The surveys revealed that parents used instrumental lies more often than white lies, and the children reported greater belief in instrumental lies than in white lies (stock image)
However, children exposed to these types of lies were significantly more likely to lie to their parents.
Meanwhile, white lies usually come from a good place, but can also turn your child into a liar.
However, this only they case if they realise what you’ve told them isn’t true.
‘White lies may be motivated by good intentions, but if children realise they have been lied to, this can also lead to lying from the child,’ Ms Setoh added.
The researchers hope the findings will encourage parents to think twice before lying to their children.
‘Our findings underscore the value of differentiating parental lies by type in investigating its role in children’s socialization of lying as well as the importance of considering children’s perceptions and interpretation of parental lies,’ the team wrote in their study, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.