Lee et al

• Background

  • Individualistic culture
  • People's identities are defined by personal choices and achieves
  • Collectivist
  • People's identities are shaped by the groups they seem themselves as a part of
• Aims

  1. Culture - to see if individualist or collectivist culture affects their views about truth-telling or lying
  2. Age - to find out if views about truth-telling and lying changes as they grow taller
• Sample

  • Individualistic
  • 108 children from Canada aged 7, 9 & 11
  • Collectivist
  • 120 children from China aged 7, 9 & 11
• Procedure


  Each child had four stories read to them

  1. A child would behave anti-socially & lie when asked about it
  2. A child would behave anti-socially and tell the truth about it when asked.
  3. A child would behave pro-socially & lie about it when asked
  4. A child would behave pro-socially & tell the truth about it
• Types of stories - social

  • Giving money to another child for lunch
  • Giving money to another child for a trip
  • Pushing another child because of skipping rope
  • Pushing a new child they didn't like
• Types of stories - physical

  • Picking up litter
  • Tidying a classroom
  • Tearing pages in a library book
  • Scribbling pages in a library book
• Follow-up questions

  1. Is what XXX did good or naughty
  2. Is what XXX said to their teacher (about what they did) good or naughty

  They were then asked to respond to these questions on a seven-point scale ranging from very good to very very naughty.
• Results - Pro-social truth-telling


  Children in China came to view this as less positive as they got older (seeing this as 'begging for' or wanting praise)
• Results - pro-social lie-telling


  Children in collectivist China came to view this positively as they got older (seeing that one should not leave one's name after a good deed)
• Results

  • Truth-telling
  • Children from China and Canada view this way positively
  • Lie-telling
  • Children from both collectivist China and individual Canada rated this negatively, and in both cultures rating become more negative as they got older