Parenting Tips: Praise Can Be Bad; Lying Is Normal : NPR

by Melanie on 30/09/09 at 7:49 am

“Talwar has a variety of experiments where she tempts children to cheat in a game, which puts them in a position to offer real lies about their cheating. She videotapes these, too, and when she shows those videotapes to the child’s own parent — and asks, “Is your child telling the truth?” — the parents score only slightly better than chance.

They don’t take it well, either. When Renaud’s on the telephone with parents to schedule the experiments, “They all believe that their kids aren’t going to lie.” Talwar explained that a number of parents come to her lab really wanting to use their kids’ performance to prove to a verified expert what a terrific parent they are.

The truth bias is a painful one to overcome.

The next day, we saw that in action.”

Fascinating book excerpt and article on childhood lying:

via Parenting Tips: Praise Can Be Bad; Lying Is Normal : NPR.

Here’s the PDF: Praise Can Be Bad