Laure Brimbal discusses how children are judged harshly for telling blunt truths with Big Ideas TXST
Jayme Blaschke | December 6, 2022
Laure Brimbal, assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Texas State University, joins the Big Ideas TXST podcast for December’s episode to discuss research that shows children are judged more harshly for telling blunt truths than for lies.
Research published in October by Brimbal suggests children who tell blunt truths such as “I don’t want this present – it’s ugly!” are judged more harshly by adults than those who bend the truth to be polite or protect others. Published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Moral Education, the research demonstrates the mixed messages that adults tend to give children about lying versus telling the truth in different contexts.
The study followed 267 adults from the Northeast U.S. being shown videos of children, aged 6 to 15, telling the truth or lying in various social situations. In some scenarios, the 24 different children lied to protect others. Findings showed that the adults judged the blunt truth-tellers more harshly than those who lied or told vague truths, but only when they told lies in order to be polite. When children lied to protect others, telling blunt truths or lies had less of an influence on how adults viewed the child.
Big Ideas TXST is a monthly podcast from University Communications & Public Relations that goes inside the fascinating minds forging innovation, research and creativity at the university. Hosted by Daniel Seed, a lecturer in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, each episode features in-depth interviews and discussion with the thought leaders developing innovative ideas to make the world a better place.
Big Ideas TXST can be found at news.txstate.edu/inside-txst/big-ideas-podcast. Listen or subscribe to the podcast at:
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For more information, contact University Communications:Jayme Blaschke, 512-245-2555 Sandy Pantlik, 512-245-2922 |