Lee et al

• Background to study:

  • early 1980s - developmental psychologists have shown renewed interest in children's understanding & moral judgements of lying & truth telling
  • previous research was conducted with children in Western countries - children were raised in environments that emphasise individualism, self-assertion & competition
• Aim: To compare cross-cultural of lying and truth telling situations involving prosocial and antisocial behaviours. Would Chinese & Canadian children rate truth and lie telling differently in pro-social settings
• Research design:

  • cross cultural method
  • lab exp
  • independent measures
• IV's :

  • whether the participant heard the social story or the physical story
  • whether the participant heard prosocial stories or antisocial stories
• DV's:

  • rating given to story character's deed
  • rating given to what the character said
• Sample: 120 Chinese and 108 Canadian children aged 7-11.
• Results:

  • Pro social truth telling
  • Chinese - ratings became less positive as they got older
  • Canadian - gave similar ratings at each age
  • Pro social lie telling
  • Chinese - rating of lie telling changed from negative to positive as age increased
  • Canadian - rated lie telling negatively. as age increased ratings became a bit less negative
  • Anti social truth telling
  • both rated it positively
  • Anti social lie telling
  • rated lie telling negative. increased with age
• Conclusions:

  • specific social and cultural norms have impact on children's developing moral judgement
  • in pro social situations, Chinese children rated truth telling less positively and lie telling less negatively than Canadians
  • Both showed similar moral evaluations of lie telling and truth telling related to antisocial behaviours