Reputation and prosocial lies in development

Abstract

Children start to engage in self‐serving deception from approximately 2½ years of age. This emerging self‐centered propensity toward the deliberate covering of truth is predicted by the child's degree of executive function and level of theory of mind. In contrast, existing studies on the emergence of other‐oriented lies point to a significant developmental lag—children begin to produce prosocial lies not prior to 3–4 years of age. What may account for such a lag? In this article, we review the recent literature and conclude that the existing cognitive account does not fully explain the developmental lag between self‐ and other‐serving deception. As an alternative, we propose that reputational concerns may drive the ontogeny of prosocial lies and account for their later emergence.