Kim Mills: From Pinocchio, to The Boy Who Cried Wolf, many classic children's tales tell the stories of children who lie and get their comeuppance for it. It's no surprise that these morality tales are so popular. Honesty is a universally valued trait, and most parents want to raise their children to be honest. So, the first time that a parent catches a child in a lie, it may come as an unpleasant surprise, but psychological research has found that lying is a normal part of childhood. In fact, it's a developmental milestone. It's only possible once children have developed some self-control and the ability to understand another person's mental state.
So, why do kids lie, and how young does lying start? Do kids lie more than adults? How do children understand the morality of lying, and how does their understanding change as they get older? What kind of lies are normal for children? And when does lying become a problem? How do kids think about the gray areas of telling white lies, keeping secrets, and tattling? And how can parents encourage truth-telling and honesty in their children?
Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the American Psychological Association that examines the links between psychological science and everyday life. I'm Kim Mills.
Our guest today is Dr. Victoria Talwar, a professor in the department of educational and counseling psychology at McGill University, where she studies children's truth-telling and lie-telling behavior. Her research examines the cognitive, social, and cultural factors that affect children's lying, as well as how children understand the moral implications of lying and honesty. She also studies issues related to children's eyewitness testimony in court, and kids’ and teens’ social interactions in cyberspace, including cyberbullyingg. Her book, The Truth About Lying: Teaching Honesty to Children at Every Age and Stage, was published by APA in July.
Thank you for joining us today, Dr. Talwar.
Victoria Talwar, PhD: Thank you for having me.
Mills: Let's start with an idea I just mentioned, which is that lying is a normal part of children's development. At what age do kids start to lie, and what cognitive abilities do they need to have in place in order to lie well?
Talwar: Yeah, it actually emerges along with other cognitive abilities that happen in the preschool years. So that's why we say it's a normal part of development because it's part of these abilities, these positive cognitive abilities that develop in children, which are abilities like they understand that other people have other thought bubbles, I say, coming from their minds. So the idea is that we understand that somebody else has different ideas, different thoughts, different beliefs, knowledge, and desires that are different from ours. So if you imagine in their thought bubble, they're thinking their thoughts of what they think about the world and what they know about the world.
But a young child doesn't understand that. They don't realize that what they know, someone else might not know, or vice versa. So they don't really yet start to understand that until about the preschool years of about three, four, five, six, they're starting to develop these abilities. And certainly, by five, that most children understand it.
Once you start to understand that, that other people have these mental thoughts, mental representations in their minds, these knowledge, beliefs that are different, that can be different, you can understand that someone else could have a false belief about what is true. So if I go and put the juice in the fridge, and then later you move the juice and put it on the counter, I will still have a false belief that the juice is in the fridge, but a young child doesn't have that yet knowledge. They'll think that if they saw you move it, that I will have the knowledge that they have, which is the juice is on the counter. They don't have the idea that I could have a false belief in my mind. Once you start to understand that someone can have a false belief about reality, then you also can understand that you can start to manipulate that and potentially instill a false belief in others.
And this ability to understand other people's thought bubbles, as I call them, is a really important part of development because we want children to be able to start understanding that other people have different thoughts and knowledge, and to be able to do perspective taking, which is this is building towards these building blocks of perspective-taking. This is a very important part in our social development, be able to interact with each other.
So, this is a positive development and this cognitive development happens in the preschool years, but it also means that children also start to tell lies because they also understand that maybe if I lie about doing my homework, mom might believe it, and I'd get out of doing my homework. So this is a product of this positive development that's happening in children.
Mills: Are there ages or stages in development when lying is more common among kids?
Talwar: So, in the preschool years, you start to see it emerge. And I would say that you sometimes see it emerge a little earlier for children, especially children who have older siblings. Researchers show that for children who have older siblings, parents might notice their children telling small fibs earlier. And that's partly because, one, they may see it modeled by the older siblings, but also, two, this is part of negotiating the social relations with their siblings potentially. And also, younger children with an older sibling have more advanced cognitive development happening because of all their social interactions. It advances their cognition. So you may see this ability a little earlier.
But generally, it's happening, you start to see some children two and a half, three, by four years of age, most children are telling occasional lies. And so it emerges at this age, but it increases in frequency as they're getting a little older. They are not necessarily the best at lying, so you'll notice that. But as they go through the school-age years, they start to learn about when it's appropriate and not appropriate to lie. But on the other hand, they're getting better at lying. We see a decrease in some types of lies by adolescents. But on the other hand, we see an increase in lying where adolescents may be more likely to conceal information that they consider as personal information that they don't necessarily want to disclose. And as we go through adolescents, it seems to decline as we get into early adulthood. And certainly, as we go through the age range, as we look at, for instance, seniors, they tend to lie less than middle-aged adults. So there's a downward arc as we go through.
Mills: At what point does the child actually understand that he or she is not telling the truth?
Talwar: Young children—very, very young children. Sometimes parents say, “well, my child lied to me,” and we're talking about very young children, like a two-year-old. And sometimes it's not necessarily that the child understands that they lie. What they're giving is what we call wish fulfillment. So you might point off into the horizon, “hey, do you see the Ferris wheel over there?” And the child says, “yes,” but, of course, there's no Ferris wheel in the horizon. And you say, “well, that child's just lied to me. They didn't see it.” But what the child is saying, “I want to see what you see. I want to see it. Where—yes, yes. Where is it?” And they're looking because they're used to adults asking them things and learning to comply with those questions. So sometimes they're giving these, what people think are false sensors. It's really wish fulfillment. Yeah, I want to be able to see that Ferris wheel. Yes, yes, thing.
But by the time we get to in that four-to-five range, for sure, by this age, they start to understand that the intentionality behind lying. And so definitely, they're telling intentional lies around that age range.
Mills: So when do kids start to understand and tell what we call pro-social lies, the lies that most of us will tell sometimes that are designed to avoid hurting someone's feelings? Such as you say to a gift giver, “gee, I really love those socks,” when you actually would've preferred something else, or just blurting out, “boy, Aunt Margie, you sure look fat.” I mean, when the kids realize that you shouldn't be saying those things and that they are more or less acceptable lies.
Talwar: So we did a study. Our first study, we did exactly what you said. We gave them an undesirable gift. And that one, it was a bar of soap, Lysol soap. There was a bucket of different gifts they could get. And there were lots of neat toys, but they got the Lysol soap. And then, the gift giver asked them how they liked it after they unwrapped it. And what we found was, and this was children between three and 11 years of age, and we found that even some of the three-year-olds would say, “yeah, I like it. Yeah.” The gift giver would say, "hey, do you like the gift I gave you?” “Yes.” But we did find that the younger children couldn't really tell you why they liked it, whereas the older children could.
But then we did a follow-up study. So that study we did, we did that in Canada. And a follow-up study we did with children in mainland China. But this time we explored what their explanation was. And we did it with younger children, so seven, nine- and 11-year-olds. And what we found was, when later on someone asked them, “well, why did you tell that person you like the gift?” And what we found was younger children will tell that lie for—they're not so much telling it for pro-social reasons when they lie in that situation, it's more like they fear that the person will get upset with them. So there's more related to their own self that they're thinking self-preservation in a way. Now, those children were much more likely, younger children are much more likely to be blunt truth tellers.
A lot of people have funny stories about their child telling the blunt truth in an inappropriate moment. Those children are much more likely to tell blunt truth. And those children that do tell these lies in this situation, they're much more likely to be doing it for self-preservation. They're worried that the person's going to be upset with them if they say that they don't like it.
But as you get older, going up to 11 years of age, you have a significant increase in children who are telling these lies, these politeness lies. And when you ask them why they're doing it, you get a significant increase in those children giving other oriented answers. And when I say that, I mean they're saying things like, “She'll feel really bad if I say that. She was so happy to give me the gift. I don't want to hurt her feelings.” So through those school years, they're definitely learning the social norms and social conventions of politeness. And they may start telling lies in order to preserve another person's feelings or to protect them from feeling bad.
And we did another study, a follow-up study in Canada, where we had children—so in this case, they got just your example, they got a pair of knitted, woolen, brown socks. And again, they could've got lots of things. And my graduate student, Mina Popligar, at the time, did the study and she would give them to them, and she'd say, “oh, I hope you really like this. I made them myself.” And they would open it up and they'd find woolen socks, so they say, “oh, okay.”
And in one case it was a low-stakes lie. So, they had previously gotten another toy, gift toy, and they could keep both of them. But in another condition, it was a high-stakes lie, a more altruistic lie because they could only keep one of the gifts. So if they said they didn't like them, then they could give back the socks and keep the other fun toy, but then they might be hurting her feelings. So for them to say that they like it was altruistic in that there was a potential cost to them for saying that, but this would benefit by not hurting Mina's feelings.
And what we found was, again, we did this with preschool, all the way into 11-year-olds, and we found that with age children, much more likely in the high-cost situation where they had to give back the fun toy and had to keep the woolen and socks, they were much more likely to say, “oh, yes, I like them. Thank you very much. It's very nice of you to give me woolen socks.” So as children get older, they're much more likely to tell lies for the benefit of someone else at even a potential cost to themselves.
Mills: You also study how kids think about the morality of lying and whether particular kinds of lies are right or wrong. How does that moral understanding develop and change as children age?
Talwar: So very young children often lump lying as something that is not true, not correct. But as a result, they can sometimes over generalize this to, they base it on factuality. So for instance, if you say something by mistake, they'll call that a lie. For instance, if I believe that the outdoor pool this summer is open from 11 a.m. onwards, and I tell the children, “okay, we can go at 11 o'clock,” and it turns out it's not open till 1 p.m., they'll say, “oh, well, you told a lie,” but I was just a mistaken belief. In my thought bubble, I had what I believed was a true belief that it was open at 11 a.m., but that was not the actual reality. The reality is at 1 p.m. So what's different here is that I did not intend to lie. I made a genuine mistake. I made an incorrect statement based on what I believed to be the true state of reality. Young children don't understand this. So they will often call this a lie.
And as they go through school age, six to 11, they start to understand the intentionality behind lies that the person's actually intending to deceive you. They're intending to make a false statement, to make someone else believe something that that's not true. So they start to understand that as they get older. For instance, if I decide to trick you, and do a mean trick, and tell you that the swimming pool is open at 11 a.m., but I know that it's open at 1 p.m., and so you go along at 11 a.m. and discover, to your disappointment, that you can't get in, that is a lie where I know that when the pool is open, but I've still made a false statement, intending you to believe it. And therefore, I've intended to deceive you.
Mills: What about navigating the line between lying and cheating? What's the best way to get children to understand that cheating is in effect a form of lying? And does it matter if they even understand that?
Talwar: We talk about lying. So lying is, usually, a verbal statement made with the intention to deceive. It's under the umbrella of dishonesty. Now, we can have a range of dishonest acts, including cheating. Often, cheating and lying come together because if you cheat on a test and then someone asks you, “how did you know that?” You lie about it. Or you were asked ,did you cheat or something? You lie about it. So it's also about the wider discussion about the importance of honesty and not engaging in dishonest acts.
Mills: You mentioned a little while ago, you've done studies in Canada and China. Do you find that children in different countries and cultures think differently about the morality of lying?
Talwar: One thing that is universal is that people think honesty is really important. It's a highly valued behavior, and we look forward in the character of others. We rate it very positively. Honesty is really important. What changes from culture to culture is the situations where it may be acceptable to not always be honest, for instance. And we have culturally sanctioned situations where we tell what we perceive as not necessarily being lies. For instance, in North America, it's very common to tell children about Santa Claus. Yet few parents think about it as potentially lying because it's a culturally sanctioned story that we tell children, and we don't even see it often in the realm of deception. So we have these areas where we may be less negative about lying.
To give you another example—well, actually, this is a study by Kong Lee. He did a study in China and in Canada, where they gave vignettes, and the children had to evaluate whether they thought what the character said was good or bad. And in some of the vignettes, the story character would clean up the room while the teacher was out of the room. And the teacher would come back in the room and ask them who did it. And in some of the stories the child said they did it, truthfully. And some of the stories the child would lie and not say that they did it. In Canada, children always rated the truth-telling positively and the lying negatively, whether it was about doing something bad transgressive or doing this positive thing, cleaning up a room, for instance.
But in China, with age, children were increasingly more likely to rate the truth-telling about cleaning up the room less positively. And they were more likely to rate the lying more positively with age. So they were more likely to say it was okay to lie in this situation as they got older, and that's because, within that culture, the principle of modesty is very important. And so it becomes more acceptable to lie in that situation because it's seen as being more self-effacing and more modest. So we have social situations where we may consider lying a less negative thing.
So just like the example we gave a moment ago with getting a gift, often, children, for instance, in North America, are socialized by parents to say, “oh, thank you very much,” and to say they like the gift because it's considered rude to tell a person, “ah, I don't like this, or why did you get me this? I wanted something else.” So there are situations that, culturally, may vary from place to place in terms of how we condone or we excuse certain lies.
Mills: Here's a question that's at the crux of your new book. How can parents encourage truth-telling in their children? What works and what doesn't work if you want to raise your children to be honest?
Talwar: First of all, if this is really important to you, that you want your child to be honest, and you want them to tell you the truth, then you need to actively teach children about it. Just thinking that they'll pick it up by osmosis is not the way to go. We actively teach children about a lot of behaviors. We actively teach them their numbers. We actively teach them how to read. If you want them to engage in pro-social behaviors, like honesty, you can also teach those. And in fact, that's the most effective thing to do, is to really stress those, talk about them, emphasize them, and teach children them.
So that means, what does that mean then? How do you teach them? Well, it means, from an early age, doing things that emphasize that and gives the message about why you value this behavior. That means you can read stories. You can read stories at a very young age with children. Children particularly love stories, and they can be really good mechanisms to give them that message, and also to make it understandable to them. It also can be a catalyst for you to have conversations with them about these different principles, and about how the story characters behaved, and why they behave like that. And that's something you can do throughout as they get older too.
Younger age, you're going to have picture books. As you get older, even an older age child, older elementary, or middle school child, you may still be engaging in reading with them for entertainment. Even though they can read themselves, you can talk about things. Or just be interested in the books they're doing. You can talk about student characters, and when they show behaviors like honesty, you can talk about them, or when they're dishonest and talk about those situations. And of course, as they get older, the situations where they see lying and truth-telling become more nuanced, then you can have an ongoing conversation about that.
So having an ongoing conversation. Also, make sure that if honesty is something you value, then you want to recognize it in your children. If they're honest, we often forget to recognize it because there's sometimes being honest about a transgression, So we jump right to the transgression, what? You did what? But we want to say—should take a moment to at least give them recognition that they've done the brave thing and told you the truth about it. So say, “I'm not happy that broke my phone, but I'm glad, I'm happy that you at least told me the truth about it.” And then you can have a conversation about why they broke the phone or whatever, but giving them some recognition when they're honest is important because it's not only important to say have conversations about the importance of honesty, but then, if you never recognize it, when they do it's like, “well, it doesn't actually matter at all when I'm honest. I don't get any positive feedback on it.” And we often just give negative feedback when they're lying, but we also have to give the positive feedback.
And also, finally, a really important piece of this is modeling the behavior. If you say honesty is really important, but then you are being dishonest in front of your child, your child's going to observe that. So if you are lying, they hear you lying on the phone and they know it's an obvious lie, or you lying to get into the movies for cheaper price because you lie about their age or whatever, those are little things they pick up on and they're just communicating to them, “yeah, honesty's really the best policy. Honesty's important, but we can fudge it too.” And so you have to model that behavior as well. If it's really important to you, you should also be showing them how to be honest.
Mills: What about punishing kids for lying? Does that work in the sense that it will make them stop lying going forward?
Talwar: We often do punish lying. It's not that you shouldn't necessarily let them just lie without any consequence, but part of that is, also, the flip side of it is recognizing the truth-telling when they have it. So if you're only punishing lie-telling, and you're never giving any recognition for truth-telling, then you may not be actually communicating the value of truth-telling or showing them what the desired behavior is.
And also, really authoritarian punishment for lying, it may stop them lying in that moment, but it doesn't necessarily distinguish the behavior. Because, for instance, we did a study where we found children who had really strict punitive corporal punishment in a schools setting compared to children who didn't. They learned to lie earlier and they learned to lie better. And part of that is, well, if you are going to get into a lot—these children would get into a lot of trouble for all sorts of transgressions not just lying. But if you're getting into potentially having some really harsh punishments for whatever you do, lying can actually be a way to mitigate those negative consequences to you. But then, if you're going to try that strategy, you might as well go for broke and really learn to do it well for it to be effective. So it might backfire on you.
So it's not that you should not just ignore lying completely all the time and never have consequences for it, but you have to think about it within a wider framework of reinforcing honesty and demonstrating what the desired behavior is, and also having conversations outside the situations where they're lying when there's other times when you're not in an emotional state. Also having conversations about why honesty's important, and why you should tell the truth, and what does truth-telling look like in different types of situations.
Mills: There's a section of your book called gray areas, where you talk about two special types of situations involving honesty and truth-telling, and that's secrets and tattles. How do you suggest parents talk with their kids about when it's okay to keep a secret or tell it, and when it's really necessary to tattle on somebody?
Talwar: So I call these gray areas because they're really the difficult areas, I think, that a lot of parents like myself have struggled with because not all secrets are bad secrets. Having a surprise birthday party for your husband or a friend is not a bad secret. So there are secrets that are fine. And also children have little secrets about they have their secret hideout that they make and things like that. So often they can be very innocent, or even positive little things that are helped for short periods of time. But on the other hand, there are harmful secrets. So it's about teaching children about the difference between what secrets that are not harmful and harmful. And to understand that, as a general rule, with very young children, the preschool children, early elementary, kindergarten, in that age, they're not necessarily going to understand that distinction. So it's better, in that case, to maybe just be careful not to use a lot of secret keeping then, at that age. And just to be a little bit understanding that they're still trying to understand those distinctions.
Also, if they're keeping little child play secrets, it's not necessarily a bad thing, don't be harsh on them. They're still understanding that. But what you do want to have is a conversation about that there are harmful secrets that we shouldn't keep. As they get older, you can have more and more discussion with that. For instance, no one's supposed to touch their private parts, for instance. Even if that someone told them, “don't tell anyone,” that is something that they should always tell you, that the only person who's allowed to touch their private parts is their parents when they're washing them or whatever, or the doctor examining them. But if anyone tells them, “don't tell,” they should always tell their parent.
But on the other hand, a secret that is kept for a short amount of time, like for a surprise party, where there's no harm attached to it, these are harmless secrets that are all okay to keep, but this shouldn't be kept forever. So teaching them with that. And that has an ongoing conversation as children develop. And they start to also understand the difference between what is something that is bad to keep secret and what is something that's okay.
Mills: But maybe it's not a good idea to tell your three-year-old about the surprise party.
Talwar: Yes because they're more likely to be blunt truth tellers, so they're likely to blur it out. “You know what mommy has hidden in her closet? She's got your present. And you know what it is?”
Mills: We've talked a lot about how lying is a normal part of development, but sometimes it develops into a problem. So what's the difference between normal and problematic lying in children, and how can parents be really attuned and react appropriately? I mean, not overreact. Some kids will lie, and that's okay. But how do you know when you've really got a problem?
Talwar: I have to say that most cases, there's not a problem. The first time you observe your child lying, you're not happy about it. But on the other hand, don't freak out about it. Like I said, at the start, it's a normal thing that they start to understand that they can do and they start to learn. And over time, you're talking to them about honesty, and they get socialized that they understand that this is not something that they should do frequently. And to also understand that, as a behavior, the majority of adults tell occasional lies. So by and large, most adults are honest most of the time, but the research with adults show that the adults tell the occasional lie here and there. So also keep that in mind. To be more understanding with your child and also not to freak out that the first time you see a lie, it doesn't mean your child is going to have a problem.
Also, you're going to see your child go through periods of time where they're trying that behavior, they've learned that they can do it, and you have to just keep on teaching them, and reinforcing the importance of honesty with them, and be patient. And by and large, most of them will start to be less likely to lie, and only lie occasionally maybe in a situation where they're trying to be polite in situations like that.
For a fairly small percentage of children, it may become a problem behavior. And this may be related, it could be a number of reasons. It could be because it's related to some other problem behaviors, such as children who have conduct disorder or oppositional defined disorder, they are more likely to lie. In fact, this is one of the symptoms of it, of these disorders, but very small percentage. And then you're going to see it in a constellation of other behaviors, like being aggressive, or engaging in more antisocial behavior, being defiant of authority, etc. So if you're seeing a range of these behaviors, including lying, you may wish to seek help just to find out if your child—and this should be over a period of time. It shouldn't be just one day or one week, but we're talking about, over a period of time, you're seeing this pattern developing, then you should seek help.
The other time that you should seek help is when you are having trouble coping with your child's behavior. Your child's lying behavior, you're having difficulty coping with it, and it's out of state where you are not able to deal with it. Then, also seek help because, whether it's a problematic, or it's just a phase they're going through, or whatever, that's a good time to get some help, for you to how to deal with it and also help with the child if there is anything else because, really important, as children develop, if you really want to maintain honesty and open, honest communication between you and your child, as they go from preschool through elementary school, into high school, and up into their adult life, you want to have a relationship with them that is based on open and honest communication. And to do that, it's really important the bond between you and your child's maintained. And there's this bond of trust that's maintained.
And if that bond is being compromised and you're having difficulty coping with that, it's important to seek help to help you with that because, as a parent, you're a really important part of that child's life. You're the first educator of the child. The parent is their very first educator, from when they're small, and you play a significant role in their life. Even in the teenage years, when they are engaged with the wider world, you still can play a significant role when you have a strong relationship and bond with that child. So you really, if there's anything that's compromising that, or you just feel you can't cope, just reach out and ask for some help.
Mills: In addition to studying lying and honesty, you also research children's online interactions, including cyberbullying. Is there a connection between that work and your work online in truth-telling?
Talwar: Yeah. Part of the reason, way back when we were early days, early days of smartphones and everything, somebody asked me about children posting false rumors and lies on the internet about other children, which is one way of cyberbullying. There's other ways to do it too. And so that started me on that road. And since then, we've continued and looked at wider aspects of children's online engagement in the digital world, but there is a connection here in that, even more so, it was even more so just before the pandemic, and now it's just normal everyday part of our lives. The digital world is really part of it. Youth engage constantly with the online world, through their smartphones, through the computers, many, many different ways. And it's with them at all times.
And there are many positive aspects of that. There are many ways we can harness digital technology to help them with their education, to help with mental health too. We can deliver interventions, telehealth, all sorts of positive ways. But the downside of it is you could have negative interactions online too. And before, if your child was being bullied at school, they could come home, they could shut the door, and they could be safe in the cocoon of your home. But now, with that smartphone, it can follow them right up into their bedroom and be with them all night long. You can't escape it. So it is of concern to parents, and to children and youth. And that's also something that parents have to engage in.
This is part of our reality and part of youth regular life. So talking about what's happening online and having conversations about what to do if they see something inappropriate, or if they're the target, is important, even prior to such events. But when we talk to youth about why they don't tell their parents why they, if they're being bullied online, a lot of times they say that they conceal that information because they're afraid that parents will take their devices away from them. And often, the reason the parent takes a device, is not because the parent trying to punish the child, although it feels like punishment to the child, they're just very worried about the child, and they're trying to keep the child safe, and they see this device as, “okay, you better not have the phone.”
So we had a 12-year-old, had the phone, the parent had given the phone because the child was going to and from school, and they thought for safety reasons. And then the child was being bullied, and the parent took the phone away, but that felt like a punishment to that 12-year-old. And so they felt, not only were they bullied, but now they've lost this phone that they so prized. So we have to think about how we are communicating about cyberbullying and online engagement. And also, when we discover that children are doing it, we need to be careful not to punish them inadvertently because this is the thing that is that fear of those repercussions that we hear from youth why they often lie or don't tell about what's happening online.
Mills: So what are you working on now? What are the next big questions you want to answer?
Talwar: So the biggest questions are, we know a lot about how it emerges in line. So we know about preschool children and early elementary, that it really is related to their social cognition, what I was saying before, their understanding of other people's minds, their other thought bubbles, understanding their cognition, but what we are interested in is how it then develops over time. For most people, lying is an infrequent, occasional behavior. And a lot of people are honest. But for some children and some adults, lying does become a problematic behavior.
So we're interested in looking at that trajectory over time of what is it that predicts, why most people learn not to lie, how that may materialize into different profiles, where you have people who are very honest, you have people who are honest some of the time, but dishonest also some of the time. And then you have some people who are being dishonest. And those may be for different reasons. Some may be doing it because it's social currency. They want people to think well of them. And so they're pathologically lying to make people think that they're great. And so they're often telling lies to make themselves appear better. Or there may be people who are lying for very manipulative reasons. And so looking at how that develops over time, and how the social factors lead to different profiles of being honest or dishonest. And then, what are the most effective ways to intervene to prevent any maladaptive development in children?
Mills: Well, Dr. Talwar, this has been really interesting. I know you've given a lot of good information to parents and caregivers out there. So I want to thank you for joining me today.
Talwar: Thank you.
Mills: You can find previous episodes of Speaking of Psychology on our website at www.speakingofpsychology.org or on Apple, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. And please leave us a review. If you have comments or ideas for future podcasts, you can email us at speakingofpsychology@apa.org. Speaking of Psychology is produced by Lea Winerman. Our sound editor is Chris Condayan.
Thank you for listening. For the American Psychological Association, I'm Kim Mills.
Victoria Talwar, PhD, is a professor in the department of educational and counseling psychology at McGill University, where she studies children's truth-telling and lie-telling behavior. Her research examines the cognitive, social, and cultural factors that affect children's lying, as well as how children understand the moral implications of lying and honesty. She also studies issues related to children's eyewitness testimony in court, and kids’ and teens’ social interactions in cyberspace, including cyberbullying. Her book, The Truth About Lying: Teaching Honesty to Children at Every Age and Stage, was published by APA in July.
