ABSTRACT
How do children come to lie? This chapter begins by considering what children’s first lies look like and why they tell them. We explore the development of both the sophistication of their lies as well as the cognitive and social development required for this. While the ability to lie is thus a sign of cognitive maturation, it can also become maladaptive and chronic as a result of dispositional, cognitive, and social factors. With this in mind, this chapter considers how to detect children’s lies and how children come to develop an ability to understand whether they should trust other people’s information.
