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Social preferences and lying aversion in children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Valeria Maggian  and
Marie Claire Villeval
Valeria Maggian*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo, 1, 20126 Milan, Italy
Marie Claire Villeval*
Affiliation:
Université de Lyon, 69007 Lyon, France CNRS, GATE Lyon St Etienne, 93, Chemin des Mouilles, 69130 Ecully, France IZA, Bonn, Germany
*
valeria.maggian@unimib.it
villeval@gate.cnrs.fr
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Abstract

While previous research has shown that social preferences develop in childhood, we study whether this development is accompanied by reduced use of deception when lies would harm others, and increased use of deception to benefit others. In a sample of children aged between 7 and 14, we find strong aversion to lying at all ages. Lying is driven mainly by selfish motives and envy. Children with stronger social preferences are less prone to deception, even when lying would benefit others at no monetary cost. Older children lie less than younger children and use self-justification to lie.

Keywords

Lying aversionDeceptionSocial preferencesChildrenExperiment

JEL classification

D63: Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement C91: Laboratory, Individual Behavior
Type
Original Paper
Information
Experimental Economics , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 663 - 685
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Economic Science Association

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Footnotes

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-015-9459-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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