Observation of Parental Lying: A Novel Coding Scheme

Children learn to lie from a very young age. While many forms of lying are harmless, other types are maladaptive. What is more, the social origins of this behaviour have been grossly understudied. The EU-funded FAMI-LIES project (ERC Starting Grant 949041) will explore how and why parents lie to children, how this contrasts with what they teach them and how lying and moral dissonance relate to socio-emotional and moral outcomes for children. The findings of the study will impact various disciplines, aid evidence-based prevention and intervention programmes for parents and children, and provide foundations for further expansion of this societal and clinically relevant line of research.