To study lying in children, Lee and his colleagues use a simple experiment. They ask kids to guess the identity of toys hidden from their view, based on an audio clue. For the first few toys, the clue is obvious -- a bark for a dog, a meow for a cat -- and the children answer easily. Then the sound played has nothing to do with the toy. "So you play Beethoven, but the toy's a car," Lee explains. The experimenter leaves the room on the pretext of taking a phone call -- a lie for the sake of science -- and asks the child not to peek at the toy. Returning, the experimenter asks the child for the answer, following up with the question: "Did you peek or not?"
為了研究孩子們的說(shuō)謊行為，李和他的同事做了一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的實(shí)驗(yàn)。他們要求孩子們根據(jù)聲音線索猜出那些不被他們看到的玩具究竟是什么。孩子們很容易回答出頭幾個(gè)玩具，因?yàn)榫€索顯而易見(jiàn)，例如狗吠和貓叫。然后研究人員播放一些與玩具無(wú)關(guān)的聲音。“你放的是貝多芬的音樂(lè)，但玩具是一輛汽車。”李說(shuō)。試驗(yàn)中，實(shí)驗(yàn)者為了測(cè)試的科學(xué)性而借口打電話離開(kāi)房間 ，并要求孩子不要偷看玩具。 回來(lái)后，實(shí)驗(yàn)者問(wèn)孩子們答案的同時(shí)也緊跟著問(wèn)：“你偷看了嗎？”
Most children can't resist peeking, Lee and his researchers have found by monitoring hidden cameras. The percentage of the children who peek and then lie about it depends on their age. Among two-year-old transgressors, only 30 percent are untruthful. Among three-year-olds, 50 percent lie. And by eight, about 80 percent claim they didn't peek.
李和他的研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，絕大多數(shù)的孩子們抵抗不住偷看的誘惑。偷看并撒謊的孩子所占的百分比取決于他們的年齡。在兩歲的違規(guī)者中，只有百分之三十是不誠(chéng)實(shí)的。在三歲之間，謊言占到了50%，到8歲，則有80%的人聲稱他們沒(méi)有偷看。
Kids also get better at lying as they get older. In guessing the toy that they secretly looked at, three- and four-year-olds typically blurt out the right answer, without realizing that this reveals their transgression and lying. At seven or eight, kids learn to mask their lying by deliberately giving a wrong answer or trying to make their answer seem like a reasoned guess.
隨著年齡的增長(zhǎng)，孩子們也越來(lái)越會(huì)撒謊。在猜測(cè)偷看過(guò)的玩具時(shí)，三四歲的孩子通常會(huì)脫口而出正確答案，而不會(huì)意識(shí)到這樣會(huì)暴露他們的謊言。到了七歲或八歲，孩子們故意給出錯(cuò)誤的答案，或試圖讓回答看起來(lái)像一個(gè)有理由的猜測(cè)，從而掩飾自己的謊言。
Five- and six-year-old kids fall in between. In one study Lee used Barney the dinosaur as the toy. A five-year-old girl who denied having looked at the toy, which was hidden under a cloth, told Lee she wanted to feel it before guessing. "So she puts her hand underneath the cloth, closes her eyes, and says, 'Ah, I know it's Barney,' " Lee recounts. "I ask, 'Why?' She says, 'Because it feels purple.' "
五歲和六歲的孩子則在兩種情況之間。在一項(xiàng)研究中，李使用巴尼恐龍作為玩具。一個(gè)五歲的女孩否認(rèn)偷看過(guò)放在衣服下面的玩具，她告訴李，她想在猜測(cè)之前感受到物體。 她把手放在布下面，閉上眼睛，說(shuō)：“啊，我知道是巴尼。”李問(wèn)：“為什么？”她說(shuō)因?yàn)楦杏X(jué)到紫色。
What drives this increase in lying sophistication is the development of a child's ability to put himself or herself in someone else's shoes. Known as theory of mind, this is the facility we acquire for understanding the beliefs, intentions, and knowledge of others. Also fundamental to lying is the brain's executive function: the abilities required for planning, attention, and self-control. The two-year-olds who lied in Lee's experiments performed better on tests of theory of mind and executive function than those who didn't. Even at 16, kids who were proficient liars outperformed poor liars. On the other hand, kids on the autism spectrum -- known to be delayed in developing a robust theory of mind -- are not very good at lying.
孩子設(shè)身處地為他人著想的能力的發(fā)展驅(qū)動(dòng)著這種謊言詭辯的增長(zhǎng)。像被人熟知的心智理論那樣，這是我們?yōu)榱死斫馑说男叛觥⒁鈭D和知識(shí)而獲得的能力。說(shuō)謊的根本在于大腦的執(zhí)行功能：規(guī)劃，注意和自我控制所需的能力。在李的實(shí)驗(yàn)中，說(shuō)謊的兩歲兒童比那些沒(méi)有說(shuō)謊的在心智理論和執(zhí)行功能的測(cè)試中表現(xiàn)得更好。 即使在十六歲，精通騙術(shù)的孩子也在測(cè)試中表現(xiàn)得更好。另一方面，自閉癥兒童并不擅長(zhǎng)撒謊，人們認(rèn)為他們?cè)谛纬梢环N健全的心智理論時(shí)被耽擱了。
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