The practice of lying to one's children to encourage behavioral compliance was investigated among parents in the US (N = 114) and China (N = 85). The vast majority of parents (84% in the US and 98% in China) reported having lied to their children for this purpose. Within each country, the practice most frequently took the form of falsely threatening to leave a child alone in public if he or she refused to follow the parent. Crosscultural differences were seen: A larger proportion of the parents in China reported that they employed instrumental lie-telling to promote behavioral compliance, and a larger proportion approved of this practice, as compared to the parents in the US. This difference was not seen on measures relating to the practice of lying to promote positive feelings, or on measures relating to statements about fantasy characters such as the tooth fairy.
Findings are discussed with reference to sociocultural values and certain parenting-related challenges that extend across cultures. [HTML] --
[PDF] [more inside]
posted by Blasdelb
on Jan 23, 2013 -
82 comments
Wasdale is a remote valley in the English Lake District. It boasts England's deepest lake, highest mountain, smallest church...and
biggest liar.
[more inside]
posted by reynir
on Nov 22, 2010 -
24 comments
It’s only natural that if you wish to present yourself as a well-read person, a certain degree of complete bullshit is required. There’s no shame in lying about what you’ve read. There’s only shame in getting caught. Then you look like a doofus, and an illiterate one at that... How to lie about books.
posted by Artw
on May 28, 2009 -
73 comments
Carl Cannon on
why Presidents lie, including a lengthy discussion of George W. Bush.
Even giving him the benefit of the doubt on honesty, why doesn't the nation's first-ever M.B.A. president demonstrate a better command of the facts?
posted by russilwvong
on Jan 26, 2007 -
44 comments
Don't Even Think About Lying fMRI is poised to transform the security industry, the judicial system, and our fundamental notions of privacy. I'm in a lab at Columbia University, where scientists are using the technology to analyze the cognitive differences between truth and lies. By mapping the neural circuits behind deception, researchers are turning fMRI into a new kind of lie detector that's more probing and accurate than the polygraph, the standard lie-detection tool employed by law enforcement and intelligence agencies for nearly a century.
posted by robbyrobs
on Jan 5, 2006 -
62 comments
Mitch Albom, one of the most decorated sports columnists ever and a best selling
author, has been busted for fabricating information in his latest Detroit Free Press column. Albom has
apologized, but this has set the
sports journalism field abuzz, many happy to the star of the Freep squirm. The President of
The National Society of Newspaper Columnists has called the column "bogus" and an "egregious ethical lapse."
Others wonder why he wasn't suspended or fired, thinking his status as an author and TV / radio personality is allowing him special favors. The Freep has started an
investigation and may look into previous articles. To top it all off, here's the pot calling the
kettle black.
posted by bawanaal
on Apr 8, 2005 -
34 comments
How often does the average person lie? First, it's important to point out that lying is normal, and more often spontaneous and unconscious than cynical and coldly analytical. Our minds and bodies secrete deceit. That said, Robert Feldman, a psychologist at the University of Massachusetts, suggests that there are three lies for every ten minutes of conversation. I think that's plausible. And bear in mind that his research measured only the frequency of narrow, explicit, verbal lying. The real rate of deception, which includes our movements and expressions, must be considerably higher.
Questioning Authority - David Livingstone Smith, author of
Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind, is a liar. And he explains why you are too. (
More Inside )
posted by y2karl
on Nov 18, 2004 -
13 comments
Devices like
these or
these may be able to detect lying better than a polygraph and less intrusively. If this technology really really worked and everyone had access to it, say, in their cell phones, would life be any different? How would it change anything, if at all? Sex? Politics? Hip-hop?
posted by ewkpates
on Jan 21, 2004 -
36 comments
Lies and the Lying Presidents Who Tell Them. The
Washington Monthly publishes its "mendacity index" of the last four U.S. presidents, ranking their overall history (and severity) of lying. TWM's site also lets you rate them yourself, just in case ranking the 20 worst Americans got boring.
posted by XQUZYPHYR
on Aug 27, 2003 -
44 comments
Why articulate people make bad colleagues Nick Denton, proprietor of various websites, sometime columnist for Management Today, and supposed intelligent person has come up with this gem in his weblog:
"But I've been interviewing software engineers, and find myself prejudiced against those that talk fluently. . . . Either they were born persuasive, and so they've always been able to get away with it; or else they've always broken promises, so they've had to learn how to explain away their failures."
For the most part, I think he's wrong, but I can see where he's coming from. Should articulate people be banned from time-sensitive positions?
posted by gkostolny
on Feb 5, 2003 -
41 comments
UMass Researcher Finds Most People Lie In Everyday Conversation UMass Researcher Finds Most People Lie In Everyday Conversation
"Most people lie in everyday conversation when they are trying to appear likable and competent, according to a study conducted by University of Massachusetts psychologist Robert S. Feldman and published in the most recent Journal of Basic and Applied Social Psychology…The study also found that lies told by men and women differ in content, though not in quantity. Feldman said the results showed that men do not lie more than women or vice versa, but that men and women lie in different ways. "Women were more likely to lie to make the person they were talking to feel good, while men lied most often to make themselves look better," Feldman said."
Are you a liar? C’mon now, tell the truth.
posted by martk
on Jun 12, 2002 -
34 comments
Lying with video. Researchers at MIT have created videos of people uttering sentences they never said that consistently fool viewers and are accepted by them as real. Once upon a time, it was a lot harder to be false with film, but whether the medium will be in any way trustworthy going forward seems doubtful. What will it mean when you can't even believe your own eyes?
posted by zoopraxiscope
on May 15, 2002 -
17 comments
John Stossel Reprimanded but not Fired by ABC - It is not exactly
new information that Stossel has a habit of distorting facts and misleading the public. However, in this case he apparently thought he could get away with fabricating two complete sets of lab results related to food safety. Willingly disseminating false health information strikes me as a serious breach of journalistic ethics. In any case, ABC thinks a slap on the wrist will suffice, and tonight Stossel is expected to make an on-air apology. Will he admit he lied or blame an intern?
posted by johnb
on Aug 11, 2000 -
11 comments
