To lie or not to lie: to whom and under what circumstances.

Full Abstract

This research examined adolescents' judgments about lying to circumvent directives from parents or friends in the moral, personal, and prudential domains. One hundred and twenty-eight adolescents (12.1-17.3 years) were presented with situations in which an adolescent avoids a directive through deception. The majority of adolescents judged some acts as acceptable, including deception regarding parental directives to engage in moral violations and to restrict personal activities. Other acts of deception were judged as unacceptable, including deception of parents regarding prudential acts, as well as deception of friends in each domain. In addition, lying to conceal a misdeed was negatively evaluated. Most adolescents thought that directives from parents and friends to engage in moral violations or to restrict personal acts were not legitimate, whereas parental directives concerning prudential acts were seen as legitimate. Results indicate that adolescents value honesty, but sometimes subordinate it to moral and personal concerns in relationships of inequality.

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Author information

Author/s: Perkins, Serena A (SA); Turiel, Elliot (E);

Affiliation: Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley 94720, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Child development (Child Dev), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: -2007 Mar-Apr; vol 78 (issue 2) : pp 609-21

Dates: Created 2007/03/26; Completed 2007/07/06;

PMID: 17381793, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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