John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
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Research Article
Adults' ability to detect children's lying
Article first published online: 2 OCT 2006
DOI: 10.1002/bsl.731
Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Issue
1099-0798/asset/cover.gif?v=1&s=27cb3cb3b3e789b2519ed5b84bdb198bf5ddfb33 "Behavioral Sciences & the Law")
Behavioral Sciences & the Law
Special Issue: Malingering
Volume 24, Issue 5, pages 703–715, September 2006
Additional Information
How to Cite
Crossman, A. M. and Lewis, M. (2006), Adults' ability to detect children's lying. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 24: 703–715. doi: 10.1002/bsl.731
Publication History
- Issue published online: 2 OCT 2006
- Article first published online: 2 OCT 2006
- Abstract
- References
- Cited By
Abstract
Adults are poor deception detectors when examining lies told by adults, on average. However, there are some adults who are better at detecting lies than others. Children learn to lie at a very young age, a behavior that is socialized by parents. Yet, less is known about the ability to detect children's lies, particularly with regard to individual differences in the ability to detect this deception. The current study explored adult raters' ability to discern honesty in children who lied or told the truth about committing a misdeed. Results showed that adults are no better at detecting children's lies than they are with adult lies. In particular, adults were very poor at identifying children's honest statements. However, individual differences did emerge, suggesting that the ability to detect lying in children might be facilitated by relevant experience working with children. Implications for legal and mental health contexts are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.