Little liars: babies younger than one practise deceit, study suggests
Why it matters: Early lying reveals sophisticated social cognition, reshaping parenting and early‑learning strategies.
- Researchers at the University of Cambridge observed infants as young as six months deliberately hide objects from caregivers, a behavior they label “early deceit.”
- Developmental psychologists from Stanford argue this signals the emergence of theory‑of‑mind skills, not just motor or language milestones.
- Parents in a nationwide survey report noticing “pretend‑not‑to‑hear” tactics in toddlers, confirming the lab findings across real‑world settings.
- The study also notes a sharp increase in fabricated stories by age three, such as “a ghost ate the chocolate,” suggesting a rapid cognitive jump.
- Implications for early childhood education include tailoring social‑emotional curricula to address honesty and perspective‑taking much earlier.
New research shows that babies under one already practice simple deception—ignoring parents and hiding toys—and by three they spin full‑blown fibs, indicating that the roots of lying emerge far earlier than previously thought.
