Social preferences and lying aversion in children

Valeria Maggian and Marie Claire Villeval

Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: While previous research has shown that social preferences develop in childhood, we study whether this development is accompanied by reduced use of deception when lies would harm others, and increased use of deception to benefit others. In a sample of children aged between 7 and 14, we find strong aversion to lying at all ages. Lying is driven mainly by selfish motives and envy. Children with stronger social preferences are less prone to deception, even when lying would benefit others at no monetary cost. Older children lie less than younger children and require more selfjustification to lie.

Keywords: Lie aversion; deception; social preferences; children; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-08-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo and nep-exp
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00924980v2
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00924980v2/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Social preferences and lying aversion in children (2016)
Working Paper: Social preferences and lying aversion in children (2016)
Working Paper: Social preferences and lying aversion in children (2014)
Working Paper: Social preferences and lying aversion in children (2013)
Working Paper: Social Preferences and Lying Aversion in Children (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00924980

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().