Prosocial lies: Causes and consequences

Levine, Emma; Lupoli, Matthew J.

doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.08.006

Cited by 30 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Strategic deception, where one deliberately misleads another to gain an advantage, is self-serving 6,7 . In contrast, prosocial deception benefits others [8][9][10] . Pathological deception is less common, and has no apparent motive and benefits neither self nor others 11,12 .…”

Section: Mainmentioning

confidence: 98%

Choosing to Lie: Strategic and Pathological Deception

Corlett

Rossi-Goldthorpe

2023

Preprint

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Humans lie to one another frequently with local and global consequences. Here we examine and operationalize the choice to lie using a mathematical model which we fit to participant behavior. This model combines perceptions of exploitability and fairness attitudes to explore the interaction between two types of utility: instrumental utility and moral utility. These utilities differed in concert with individual differences in participants’ behavioral traits, and those differences underwrote lies with distinct motivations. Strategic deception – wherein the lie benefits the individual - was common amongst people with elevated subclinical psychopathic traits in the absence of paranoia. It was driven by differences in instrumental utility. Whereas pathological deception – which has no apparent economic or strategic benefit – was common among highly paranoid participants (who also had elevated scores on dark triad personality traits) and was governed by the moral utility of the lie. They lied for little apparent benefit because they failed to modulate their fairness attitudes in line with the decision context. These data challenge accounts of deception that suggest deceiving oneself is a prerequisite to successful lying. They also oppose accounts of psychopathology that connect psychopathic traits to pathological lying, and theories that implicate strategic social decision-making dysfunction in paranoia. More broadly, these data highlight the importance of individual differences in efforts to mitigate deception, which have thus far, largely focused on incentive structures and decision architectures.

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Section: Mainmentioning

confidence: 98%

Choosing to Lie: Strategic and Pathological Deception

Corlett

Rossi-Goldthorpe

2023

Preprint

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“…Though most existing research on honesty and deception examines the conflict between prosocial truths and harmful lies, an emerging body of research has begun to examine the antecedents and consequences of prosocial lies , lies that benefit others (for review, see Levine & Lupoli, 2022). The ability to tell prosocial lies begins in childhood, with many children telling prosocial lies by age three (Talwar et al, 2007).…”

Section: Moral Judgments Of Prosocial Liesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lying is sometimes ethical, but honesty is the best policy: The desire to avoid harmful lies leads to moral preferences for unconditional honesty.

Jensen,

Levine,

White

et al. 2024

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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“…Prosocial lying, or telling lies to benefit others, is a ubiquitous social behavior and emerges early in development (e.g., Talwar et al, 2002 ; Warneken and Orlins, 2015 ). People may lie to others for various prosocial purposes, ranging from being polite, protecting someone’s feelings, avoiding interpersonal conflicts, to increasing group cohesion (e.g., Bryant, 2008 ; Levine and Lupoli, 2022 ). When viewed through the lens of Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory, prosocial lying is a positive politeness strategy that seeks to avoid offending the receiver’s positive face or their desire for their self-image to be appreciated and accepted by others ( Brown et al, 1987 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prosocial lie-telling in preschoolers: The impacts of ethnic background, parental factors, and perceived consequence for the partner

Grace

2023

Front. Psychol.

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This study explored prosocial lie-telling behavior in 4- to 5-year-old children from two ethnic groups: European Canadian (n = 49; excluding Eastern European Canadian) and Chinese Canadian (n = 45). Children completed an online experiment involving two real-life politeness situations. In the first situation, children were asked whether they thought someone with a red mark on their face looked okay for a photo or a Zoom party (Reverse Rouge Task). In the second situation, upon hearing the researcher’s misconception about two pieces of artwork, children were asked whether they agreed with the researcher (Art Rating Task). Parents completed questionnaires that measured their levels of collectivist orientation and parenting styles. Contrary to our hypotheses, the likelihood of children telling a prosocial lie did not vary as a function of their ethnic group or the presence of a perceived consequence for the partner, nor was it predicated by parental collectivist orientation. Interestingly, prosocial liars were more likely to have authoritative parents, whereas blunt-truth tellers were more likely to have permissive parents. These findings have important implications for the ways in which certain parenting styles influence the socialization of positive politeness in children. In addition, the similar rates of prosocial lying across the two ethnic groups suggest that children who are born and raised in Canada may be much more alike than different in their prosocial lie-telling behavior, despite coming from different ethnic backgrounds.

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Prosocial lies: Causes and consequences

Cited by 30 publications

References 46 publications

Choosing to Lie: Strategic and Pathological Deception

Choosing to Lie: Strategic and Pathological Deception

Lying is sometimes ethical, but honesty is the best policy: The desire to avoid harmful lies leads to moral preferences for unconditional honesty.

Prosocial lie-telling in preschoolers: The impacts of ethnic background, parental factors, and perceived consequence for the partner

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