New Study Indicates Lying Children Have Better Memories
And this morning's hot button kids and lying. If you
ask any parent they'll probably tell you every child does
it but it turns out there may actually be an
up side? An upside and kids who do it well
may be smarter than you think. ABC's nick watt has
more on this. Reporter: Have you ever lied to daddy?
Yes. Reporter: That's my kid. Of course, he has. All
kids lie from pinocchio. Oh, look. My nose. Reporter: To
Laila littlely on idea modern family." Somebody knocked my bag
down and broke my phone. I'll blame everything on him
until he learns how to talk. Reporter: Watch this recent
hidden camera study and disturbing discovery. The kids and it
was one in four who peeked at the quiz answers
when the grown-up left the room. Then convincingly lied about
it. I thought it might be Jim 'cause there's someone
in nye family called Jim. Reporter: Further tests showed they
have the best memories, they're smart so we should be
proud of our kids if they're good liars? The better's
child working memory the better they were at covering up
their lies. I tell a few true parts of the
story and but then I mix in a few parts
that aren't true. Reporter: And 3-year-old Elsa sipped her dad's
beer and blamed her mum. You saw her do it
but she covered her tracks. Right. Reporter: Or tried to.
Watch her. Not a behavior we want to encourage ago
parents but it decreases over time. Reporter: Apparently I should
want them to be good at it now. I re-created
that experiment. What is the boy in space boy called?
Okay. Hang/second. Be back in one second. My kids didn't
peekty answer and didn't lie. I'm proud of them anyway.
What's space boy? Even peek. I love Sebastian at the
top. Nick's little guy. Yeah, that's my boy. But 'not
lying about that. That 'S exactly right. Yahoo! Parenting experts,
Lindsay and Dr. Robyn Silverman. The first question, just like
nick and joking should you be teaching them ow to
lie and the consequences of it. Well, I mean the
thing is with -- what research has shown that one
in five interactions that adults have are lies so 20%
-- I didn't realize it. No surprise that kids are
picking it up. These kids are lying for all different
reasons. Some do it to get out of trouble. Others
do it because other people might feel bad and they
feel bad and still others might do it just because
they think it's fun to pull the wool over somebody's
eyes and there's different lies. Some are socially acceptable and
we say thank goodness you're lying about that sweater grandma
gave you and others we wish they would tell the
truth if my parents would call it you're telling a
story. What should parents do? Well, first you really want
your child to establish the fact that honesty is a
powerful word that we want to have as a family
value. Next we want our adults in our lives to
show that they are a great example of truth-telling and
make sure that you do not scold a child for
telling the truth if you keep scolding them then they're
not going to come to you and finally teach them
to do a little bit of a gut check if
the words that are coming out of your mouth make
you feel like a dizzy in the head, hot in
the face and pit in your stomach you probably are
going down the wrong path. Yeah, exactly. You know the
study indicates that the potential upside to lying include a
better verbal memory, more creative storytelling. However, there's got to
be a way to teach -- Creative storytelling. Without encouraging
lying? Right, well, your actions speak louder than words. If
they see their parents being honest, maybe they returned a
wallet they found, kid also pick up on that. To
help foster their own creativity with, you know, plays different
games and help, you know, show kids a different way
than lieing. If it's not just grandma's sweater as you
point out and this starts to go down a road
where you're getting concerned what do you do? So when
you feel like you cannot trust what your child is
saying, that you feel like they're lying all the time,
this is a time to go to your doctor and
seek some professional advice because we want to make sure
that our children know the difference between lying and telling
the truth. It's critical. Any final word. You want to
have a little positive reinforcement, as well. Talk to your
kid, get excited about what they're excited about and don't
make them feel their self-worth is tied to a certain
thing. If you say you're so smart they may continue
to lie about being smart. We know that storytelling. We
can do storytelling. Let's give them a context to do
it. Make up stories. Let your imagination go wild. Just
don't make up a story you did your homework. Exactly.
No, no, no the dog ate the homework. Hey, you
both, very great advice, appreciate it very much.
And this morning's hot button kids and lying. If you
ask any parent they'll probably tell you every child does
it but it turns out there may actually be an
up side? An upside and kids who do it well
may be smarter than you think. ABC's nick watt has
more on this. Reporter: Have you ever lied to daddy?
Yes. Reporter: That's my kid. Of course, he has. All
kids lie from pinocchio. Oh, look. My nose. Reporter: To
Laila littlely on idea modern family." Somebody knocked my bag
down and broke my phone. I'll blame everything on him
until he learns how to talk. Reporter: Watch this recent
hidden camera study and disturbing discovery. The kids and it
was one in four who peeked at the quiz answers
when the grown-up left the room. Then convincingly lied about
it. I thought it might be Jim 'cause there's someone
in nye family called Jim. Reporter: Further tests showed they
have the best memories, they're smart so we should be
proud of our kids if they're good liars? The better's
child working memory the better they were at covering up
their lies. I tell a few true parts of the
story and but then I mix in a few parts
that aren't true. Reporter: And 3-year-old Elsa sipped her dad's
beer and blamed her mum. You saw her do it
but she covered her tracks. Right. Reporter: Or tried to.
Watch her. Not a behavior we want to encourage ago
parents but it decreases over time. Reporter: Apparently I should
want them to be good at it now. I re-created
that experiment. What is the boy in space boy called?
Okay. Hang/second. Be back in one second. My kids didn't
peekty answer and didn't lie. I'm proud of them anyway.
What's space boy? Even peek. I love Sebastian at the
top. Nick's little guy. Yeah, that's my boy. But 'not
lying about that. That 'S exactly right. Yahoo! Parenting experts,
Lindsay and Dr. Robyn Silverman. The first question, just like
nick and joking should you be teaching them ow to
lie and the consequences of it. Well, I mean the
thing is with -- what research has shown that one
in five interactions that adults have are lies so 20%
-- I didn't realize it. No surprise that kids are
picking it up. These kids are lying for all different
reasons. Some do it to get out of trouble. Others
do it because other people might feel bad and they
feel bad and still others might do it just because
they think it's fun to pull the wool over somebody's
eyes and there's different lies. Some are socially acceptable and
we say thank goodness you're lying about that sweater grandma
gave you and others we wish they would tell the
truth if my parents would call it you're telling a
story. What should parents do? Well, first you really want
your child to establish the fact that honesty is a
powerful word that we want to have as a family
value. Next we want our adults in our lives to
show that they are a great example of truth-telling and
make sure that you do not scold a child for
telling the truth if you keep scolding them then they're
not going to come to you and finally teach them
to do a little bit of a gut check if
the words that are coming out of your mouth make
you feel like a dizzy in the head, hot in
the face and pit in your stomach you probably are
going down the wrong path. Yeah, exactly. You know the
study indicates that the potential upside to lying include a
better verbal memory, more creative storytelling. However, there's got to
be a way to teach -- Creative storytelling. Without encouraging
lying? Right, well, your actions speak louder than words. If
they see their parents being honest, maybe they returned a
wallet they found, kid also pick up on that. To
help foster their own creativity with, you know, plays different
games and help, you know, show kids a different way
than lieing. If it's not just grandma's sweater as you
point out and this starts to go down a road
where you're getting concerned what do you do? So when
you feel like you cannot trust what your child is
saying, that you feel like they're lying all the time,
this is a time to go to your doctor and
seek some professional advice because we want to make sure
that our children know the difference between lying and telling
the truth. It's critical. Any final word. You want to
have a little positive reinforcement, as well. Talk to your
kid, get excited about what they're excited about and don't
make them feel their self-worth is tied to a certain
thing. If you say you're so smart they may continue
to lie about being smart. We know that storytelling. We
can do storytelling. Let's give them a context to do
it. Make up stories. Let your imagination go wild. Just
don't make up a story you did your homework. Exactly.
No, no, no the dog ate the homework. Hey, you
both, very great advice, appreciate it very much.
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