Psychological Development and Education ›› 2024, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (3): 316-323.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2024.03.02

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Who Are Young Children More Likely to Lie for? The Influence of Different Beneficiaries on Lying Behavior among Preschoolers Aged 5～6 Years

ZHANG Wenjie2,3, HUANG Zijun1,2, TAN Peixia2,3, FAN Wei1,2, ZHONG Yiping1,2   

  1. 1. Department of Psychology, School of Educational Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081;
    2. Cognition and Human Behavior Key Laboratory of Hunan Province, Changsha 410081;
    3. Department of Preschool Education, School of Educational Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081
  • Published:2024-05-15

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Abstract: Experiment 1 adopted the “Hide-and-Seek Game task” to examine the influence of beneficiaries with different extents of self-relevance on lying behavior among preschoolers aged 5～6 years. The results of Experiment 1 suggested that participants told more lies for their own benefits compared with the benefits of the highly self-relevant beneficiary (friends) and lowly self-relevant beneficiary (strangers). Nevertheless, compared with the benefits of the lowly self-relevant beneficiary (strangers), participants were more likely to lie for the benefits of the highly self-relevant beneficiary (friends). Experiment 2 also used the “Hide-and-Seek Game task” to investigate the influence of beneficiaries of different groups on lying behavior among preschoolers aged 5～6 years. The results of Experiment 2 also found that participants were more likely to lie for their own benefits compared with the benefits of the in-group beneficiary and out-group beneficiary. In addition, by comparison with the benefits of the out-group beneficiary, participants were more likely to lie for the benefits of the in-group beneficiary. Our findings indicate that there is a strong egoistic tendency in lying behavior among preschoolers aged 5～6 years. More importantly, prosocial lying behavior among preschoolers aged 5～6 years is affected by self-relevance at the individual level, and there is “Self-relevance preference”. At the group level, prosocial lying behavior among preschoolers aged 5～6 years is influenced by group differences, and there is “In-group favoritism”.

Key words: lying behavior of preschoolers aged 5～6 years, beneficiaries, egoistic tendency, self-relevance preference, in-group favoritism

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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