國家地理:我們?yōu)槭裁凑f謊(5)

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To study lying in children, Lee and his colleagues use a simple experiment. They ask kids to guess the identity of toys hidden from their view, based on an audio clue. For the first few toys, the clue is obvious -- a bark for a dog, a meow for a cat -- and the children answer easily. Then the sound played has nothing to do with the toy. "So you play Beethoven, but the toy's a car," Lee explains. The experimenter leaves the room on the pretext of taking a phone call -- a lie for the sake of science -- and asks the child not to peek at the toy. Returning, the experimenter asks the child for the answer, following up with the question: "Did you peek or not?"

為了研究孩子們的說謊行為，李和他的同事做了一個簡單的實驗。他們要求孩子們根據(jù)聲音線索猜出那些不被他們看到的玩具究竟是什么。孩子們很容易回答出頭幾個玩具，因為線索顯而易見，例如狗吠和貓叫。然后研究人員播放一些與玩具無關的聲音?！澳惴诺氖秦惗喾业囊魳罚婢呤且惠v汽車。”李說。試驗中，實驗者為了測試的科學性而借口打電話離開房間 ，并要求孩子不要偷看玩具。 回來后，實驗者問孩子們答案的同時也緊跟著問：“你偷看了嗎？”

Most children can't resist peeking, Lee and his researchers have found by monitoring hidden cameras. The percentage of the children who peek and then lie about it depends on their age. Among two-year-old transgressors, only 30 percent are untruthful. Among three-year-olds, 50 percent lie. And by eight, about 80 percent claim they didn't peek.

李和他的研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，絕大多數(shù)的孩子們抵抗不住偷看的誘惑。偷看并撒謊的孩子所占的百分比取決于他們的年齡。在兩歲的違規(guī)者中，只有百分之三十是不誠實的。在三歲之間，謊言占到了50%，到8歲，則有80%的人聲稱他們沒有偷看。

Kids also get better at lying as they get older. In guessing the toy that they secretly looked at, three- and four-year-olds typically blurt out the right answer, without realizing that this reveals their transgression and lying. At seven or eight, kids learn to mask their lying by deliberately giving a wrong answer or trying to make their answer seem like a reasoned guess.

隨著年齡的增長，孩子們也越來越會撒謊。在猜測偷看過的玩具時，三四歲的孩子通常會脫口而出正確答案，而不會意識到這樣會暴露他們的謊言。到了七歲或八歲，孩子們故意給出錯誤的答案，或試圖讓回答看起來像一個有理由的猜測，從而掩飾自己的謊言。

Five- and six-year-old kids fall in between. In one study Lee used Barney the dinosaur as the toy. A five-year-old girl who denied having looked at the toy, which was hidden under a cloth, told Lee she wanted to feel it before guessing. "So she puts her hand underneath the cloth, closes her eyes, and says, 'Ah, I know it's Barney,' " Lee recounts. "I ask, 'Why?' She says, 'Because it feels purple.' "

五歲和六歲的孩子則在兩種情況之間。在一項研究中，李使用巴尼恐龍作為玩具。一個五歲的女孩否認偷看過放在衣服下面的玩具，她告訴李，她想在猜測之前感受到物體。 她把手放在布下面，閉上眼睛，說：“啊，我知道是巴尼?！崩顔枺骸盀槭裁?？”她說因為感覺到紫色。

What drives this increase in lying sophistication is the development of a child's ability to put himself or herself in someone else's shoes. Known as theory of mind, this is the facility we acquire for understanding the beliefs, intentions, and knowledge of others. Also fundamental to lying is the brain's executive function: the abilities required for planning, attention, and self-control. The two-year-olds who lied in Lee's experiments performed better on tests of theory of mind and executive function than those who didn't. Even at 16, kids who were proficient liars outperformed poor liars. On the other hand, kids on the autism spectrum -- known to be delayed in developing a robust theory of mind -- are not very good at lying.

孩子設身處地為他人著想的能力的發(fā)展驅(qū)動著這種謊言詭辯的增長。像被人熟知的心智理論那樣，這是我們?yōu)榱死斫馑说男叛?、意圖和知識而獲得的能力。說謊的根本在于大腦的執(zhí)行功能：規(guī)劃，注意和自我控制所需的能力。在李的實驗中，說謊的兩歲兒童比那些沒有說謊的在心智理論和執(zhí)行功能的測試中表現(xiàn)得更好。 即使在十六歲，精通騙術的孩子也在測試中表現(xiàn)得更好。另一方面，自閉癥兒童并不擅長撒謊，人們認為他們在形成一種健全的心智理論時被耽擱了。