@...@Research suggests that children begin to tell lies somewhere around ages 2 and 3, and studies have shown a correlation between children*s theory of mind and their tendency to lie// ©Psychological scientists Genyue Fu of Hangzhou Normal University in China, Kang Lee of the University of Toronto in Canada, and colleagues wanted to see if they could find causal evidence for a link between the two//
@...@The researchers first conducted a hide~and~seek task to identify children who hadn*t yet started lying// The children were shown a selection of stickers and were asked to pick their favorite one ~~ they were told that they could only keep the sticker if they successfully won 10 candies from the hide~and~seek game// In the game, the child was told to hide a candy under one of two cups while the researcher*s eyes were closed//© The researcher then opened his or her eyes, asked the child where the candy was hidden, and chose whichever cup the child pointed to// Thus, the child could only win the candy by lying to the experimenter about its location//