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Parents have long suspected that their own behaviour carries more weight than what they say to their children. A study involving more than 100 children now confirms this, at least with respect to lying and truthfulness.

A team of researchers from 麻豆传媒网站 and John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City presented 127 children ages 5 to 12 with stories illustrating various situations, and then asked them to evaluate the moral character of a parent whose verbal messages and actions were either in harmony or in conflict.

Results show that, when facing inconsistency between a parent鈥檚 words and deeds, children leaned more on the parent鈥檚 actions to predict how another child would act, rather than the parent鈥檚 words. They also evaluated inconsistent parents more negatively.

The study, , highlights the importance of everyday interactions in shaping not only children鈥檚 moral development, but also how they see their parents and educators.

is a PhD student in the School and Applied Child Psychology program and the lead author of the study. She is available for interviews in French.

emilie.belanger2 [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Victoria Talwar is a professor in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and the senior author of the study. She is available for interviews in English.

victoria.talwar [at] mcgill.ca