Cultural differences and moral evaluations of lie- and truth-telling

Previous cross-cultural studies show that children’s moral evaluations of lie- and truth-telling may be influenced by culture. However, the potential impact of social factors such as parental disciplinary methods in different cultures has not been investigated. Also, previous findings in Eastern Asian cultures do not account for children who live in the Middle East. The purpose of this study was fivefold: a) to examine the impact of culture on mothers’ inclinations towards either collectivism or individualism; b) to identify the impact of culture on mothers’ disciplinary methods; c) to recognize the influence of maternal disciplinary methods on children’s moral evaluations of lie- and truth-telling; d) to determine the effect of culture in shaping children’s moral evaluations of lie- and truth-telling; and e) to examine the influence of maternal disciplinary method and culture when predicting children’s moral evaluations. Two sets of data were collected in Canada (N = 240) and Iran (N = 180). Data from three cultural groups: Canadian (N = 180), Persian (N = 180), and Persian-Canadian (N = 60) was collected.Canadian and Persian-Canadian participants (recruited in Canada) included children who were 5, 7, 9, and 11 years of age (M = 7.96 years, SD = 2.25 years); of the sample, 55.8% were male and 41.7% were female. Persian participants (recruited in Iran) included children who were 5, 7, 9, and 11 years of age (M = 8.03 years, SD = 2.24 years); of the sample, 51.1% were male and 48.9% were female. All children were read twenty vignettes about characters facing moral dilemmas in antisocial, politeness, collective, modest, and Taarof situations. Taarof is defined as an elaborate system of courtesy in which polite and complimentary phrases are used to create an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect. For each story, children were asked to evaluate how bad or good the statement (either a truth or a lie) was. Parents filled out questionnaires about parenting practices. Linear mixed effects regression analyses showed cross-cultural differences between cultural groups. Further, differences were demonstrative of the impact of maternal disciplinary methods (e.g., induction, power assertion) on children’s moral evaluations of different false statements. The same analyses also revealed that the major cultural differences were most prevalent in children’s evaluations of false statements. Regarding modesty lies, it was found that, unlike Canadians, Persians were more inclined to evaluate them positively. As age increased, Persian children became more likely to rate modesty lies positively compared to their Canadian counterparts. Moreover, Persian children rated politeness and “Taarof” lies more positively compared to Canadian children. With age, Persian children evaluated untruthful statements in “Taarof” situations less negatively than Canadian children did. Furthermore, across cultures, children whose parents’ dominant disciplinary method was power assertion were more in favor of antisocial and less in favor of modesty lies compared to children whose parents used the induction disciplinary method. However, in the examined cultures, children whose parents used the induction disciplinary method valued politeness lies more than children whose parents employed the power assertion disciplinary method. Also, regarding the importance of culture and parenting for different false statements, it was found that parenting practices have a greater effect on antisocial, politeness lies than on Taarof false statements. These findings suggest that sociocultural factors (e.g., parenting, culture) may influence children’s moral judgments of lies and truths

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