Promoting Honesty through Overheard Conversations

Autor/inn/en	Sai, Liyang; Liu, Xingchen; Li, Hong; Compton, Brian J.; Heyman, Gail D.
Titel	Promoting Honesty through Overheard Conversations
Quelle	In: Developmental Psychology, 56 (2020) 6, S.1073-1079 (7 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Heyman, Gail D.)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0012-1649
DOI	10.1037/dev0000933
Schlagwörter	Ethics; Verbal Communication; Preschool Children; Foreign Countries; Resistance (Psychology); Deception; Child Behavior; China + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ethik; Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Ausland; Resistenz; Täuschung
Abstract	Although there is widespread acknowledgment that children acquire social and moral values during development via socialization processes, few plausible mechanisms have been systematically evaluated. In the present research, we examine the effectiveness of 1 potential mechanism: overheard conversations about the moral behavior of others. We examine this issue with reference to the important social value of honesty. Across 3 preregistered studies, preschool-age children in China (total N = 276) were presented with a version of the temptation resistance paradigm in which they were first given an opportunity to cheat by peeking at the answer in a guessing game and were then asked whether they had cheated. Study 1 included both 3- and 5-year-olds, and Studies 2 and 3 included 5-year-olds only. In Study 1 children were more likely to truthfully confess to peeking if they had previously overheard 2 adults say that another child's confession made them happy. An increase in truthful confessions was also seen in Study 2, even though this time the adult who asked about peeking had not been present for the overheard conversation. In Study 3, children were presented with an overheard conversation that lacked any emotion-related language, and the effect was seen once again. Taken together, these findings suggest that overheard conversations can be used to promote truth telling. More broadly, the findings suggest that children realize the attitudes adults express about others can have implications for their own behavior and can identify these attitudes, even when they are not the target of the communication. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01