Abstract:

This research examined the relationship between prosocial lie-telling behavior, theory of mind, and executive functions in children aged 54–66 months. The sample consists of 96 children (54 boys, 42 girls) aged 54–66 months (4.5–5.5 years) enrolled at five public schools and private schools in Istanbul. The children’s prosocial lie-telling behavior is tested by the good and bad drawing task and the dissapointing gift paradigm. Two false belief tasks and one appearance-reality task were used to measure theory of mind (ToM). Along with the measures for theory of mind, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhitory control were measured by the dimensional change card sort (DCCS) and day-night Strooplike test, respectively. As a result, there was no significant differences between the children’s cognitive scores (ToM, DCCS, Stroop) and pro-social lying tasks. However, there were significant predictive relationships with the DCCS and the disappointing gift paradigm’s swap condition. When age was controlled, Stroop and prosocial lie-telling in the good and bad drawing task correlated significantly in young children. White-lie-telling scores are differentiated, according to researchers, in older children. Thus, it is thought that social and motivational factors may affects children’s prosocial behavior. In this study, the disappointing gifts paradigm and good and bad drawing tasks were used to measure children’s prosocial lie-telling behavior, and it was discovered that there were quite different values for children’s lying rates.

Keywords: