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Since lying behavior is considered a negative phenomenon, except for prosocial lies, it has inspired theoretical and applied research on how to reduce such behaviors. Therefore, in the current study, we aimed to examine whether children's lie-telling behaviors are affected by honesty- and lie-themed stories using an experimental design. A total of 176 children (85 girls), aged 4 to 5 years, were included in the study. We randomly assigned participants to three different experimental groups in which they were told the importance of honesty (the honesty story), the short-term negative consequences of lying (Pinocchio), and the fact that lying is a terrible behavior with important consequences (The Boy Who Cried Wolf). No moral story was told to the children in the control group. Then, we utilized a "temptation resistance task" to measure the lie-telling behaviors of the children in the control and experimental groups. The results showed that the children in the control group lied more often than the children in all the experimental groups. The analyses conducted to ascertain the differences among the groups also revealed that children who listened to Pinocchio used significantly fewer lie-telling behaviors compared to the children who listened to the honesty story and the children in the control group.
Key words: development of lying, honesty, lie-telling behaviors, moral story
Introduction
Stories and fairytales, which contain many feelings about human life and nature, have been told since ancient times. These written and verbal works remain extant because they are one of the various ways used to convey and teach the values emphasized in society to children. In addition, fables, which are more concise stories, emphasize moral and prosocial values by conveying conflicts and experiences through facts (Detlor, 2001; Yao & Enright, 2018). Notably, honesty is one of the main values conveyed to children through such short stories from their preschool period onward (e.g., Rahiem et al., 2020; Thompson, 2011).
Honesty and lying are common themes in stories. In addition to Turkish fictional characters such as Kaloghlan, stories such as The Boy Who Cried Wolf, which emerged in different societies in ancient times but were adapted to the context of oral culture and appeared in various cultures, are still being told to children (Demren, 2015). For instance, the theme emphasized...