NUS Child Development Lab

We are excited to share that our team has published two new studies in Child Development and Developmental Psychology – two of the most prestigious and highly cited journals in the field of developmental science!

So, what did we find? In short: when children cheat or lie, it may say less about their character – and more about the pressure they feel at home.

📄 Study 1: Published in Child Development
Drawing on data from 479 children in Singapore’s landmark GUSTO (Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes) cohort, we discovered a striking pathway: fathers who adopted a more controlling parenting style had children who were more self-critical during a challenging task at age 4½ , and those same children were more likely to cheat on a dart game roughly 18 months later. The implication? Strict parenting can turn up a child's internal pressure dial so high that dishonesty becomes a coping strategy — a way to dodge failure and preserve a sense of success.

📄 Study 2: Published in Developmental Psychology
In a longitudinal study tracking 302 families over two years (ages 7–9), we found that children exposed to higher levels of negative parental control were more likely to develop dysfunctional beliefs, thoughts like "I have to do well to be liked" or "I shouldn't make mistakes." These self-beliefs, in turn, predicted a greater tendency to lie over time.

💡The Bigger Picture
Across both preschoolers and primary school children, the message is consistent and powerful: controlling parenting can shape how children see themselves, and that distorted self-view can drive dishonesty. When kids feel relentless pressure to be perfect, cheating and lying become tools for survival, not signs of poor character.

These two papers were led by Liwen Yu, a third-year PhD student in our lab. An impressive achievement at this stage of her doctoral journey! 👏

Reflecting on the findings, Liwen shared:

"These two studies taught us something important: raising honest children goes beyond teaching right from wrong. It starts with building a home where children feel valued, accepted, and safe to make mistakes, not one where they feel trapped in a cycle of pressure and perfectionism. Warmth and support may, in fact, be the most powerful antidotes to dishonesty."

Paper 1: Authoritarian parenting at 4.5 years predicts children’s cheating at 6 years.
Link for full-text: https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacaf049

Paper 2: Longitudinal associations between parental negative control and children’s deceptive behavior: The mediating role of children’s dysfunctional attitudes
Link for abstract: https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0002117
(As this paper is subscription-based, the full text is not available. Please feel free to contact us if you would like a copy of the paper.)

Calling all parents with curious little minds!

The NUS Child Development Lab has a new study for your little ones!

Ever wondered how your child thinks about themselves in their daily lives? We are looking for 5- to 6-year-old (60 months to 83 months) scientists in our face-to-face research on children's self-perception! ✨✨

Join us for an interactive 1.5-hour session in our lab, where your little one will play fun games and listen to interactive stories with our friendly researchers!

As a token of our appreciation, you will receive a two-way transport reimbursement, a certificate for your child's participation, and a special gift for your child.

Take this opportunity to learn more about your child! Secure your child's spot using the link: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/A4LkVufLB4 or sign up via the QR code. 🚀

Happy New Year, Parents! 🎉

We are inviting 5- and 6-year-old children to participate in our Children’s Social Understanding and Behaviour Study at NUS.

Your child will take part in simple, game-based activities designed to understand how children think about the social world. The session lasts about 60 minutes, and parents can observe throughout.

As a thank-you, you will receive:
📄 A personalized report on your child’s cognitive and language abilities
🚗 Transport reimbursement (up to $60)
🏅 A participation certificate
🎁 A small gift for your child

☑️ Sign up here: forms.office.com/r/9EqdwFvJ93, or scan the QR code.

We look forward to welcoming you and your child to our lab😊

Hello Parents!
We’re inviting 5- and 6-year-old children to take part in our Children’s Social Understanding and Behaviour Study at NUS! In this study, children will engage in game-based tasks designed to assess how they understand the social world.
The session lasts about 60 minutes, and parents can observe the entire session.

Participating families will receive:
📄 A personalized report on your child’s cognitive and language abilities
🚗 Transport reimbursement (up to $60)
🏅 A participation certificate
🎁 A small gift for your child

Give your child a meaningful and memorable learning experience!
☑️ Sign up here: forms.office.com/r/9EqdwFvJ93
—or scan the QR code.
We look forward to seeing you in our lab!

Some sweet memories with our little scientist and her family 💛
Thankful for all the families who make our research possible!

We’re still recruiting 5- and 6-year-olds for our Moral Behavior Study!
Join us here: forms.office.com/r/9EqdwFvJ93🌟

Reciprocity refers to the exchange of favours between parties, with each party taking turns to receive the benefits and bear the costs. This function of interpersonal relationships can improve social cohesion, but also has the power to undermine the collective good, such as if the exchange involves dishonesty. While children generally disapprove of dishonesty, it is also typical for them to cheat and lie, both for the benefit of themselves and others. If someone does them a favour without a stated expectation of reciprocity, would children typically cheat and lie to return it?

To investigate this question, two studies were conducted. In the first study, 5- to 8-year-old children were presented a series of scenarios that involved prosocial deception and asked for their perspectives. Findings showed that the majority of the children condemned cheating, even if the behaviour was carried out for the benefit of others, and older children were better able to identify prosocial explanations for the deceptive behaviour.

However, children’s moral endorsement does not always match with their in-person behaviour. Therefore, the second study placed 5- to 8-year-old children in a situation where they themselves had the opportunity to cheat to reciprocate. Children were more likely to cheat when they had a favour and with increasing age.

Interestingly, in other contexts, children’s behaviour has been found to align more closely with their moral endorsement as they grow older. The mismatch between children’s moral endorsement and behaviour suggests that children as young as five years old understand the prosocial trade-off between honesty and reciprocity, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.

Written by: Justine Koh
Study Title: Children Cheat to Return a Favor
Authors: Laura Tietz, Felix Warneken, Sebastian Grueneisen
DOI: 10.1111/desc.70059

Hello Parents! We’re inviting 5- to 12-year-olds who are Singapore Citizens or Permanent Residents to take part in our exciting online study on parenting and children’s moral development!

The study involves:
👩‍👧 Parents: A 25-minute questionnaire on parenting practices
💻 Children: A 20-minute online session of fun and interactive games with our friendly researchers

Participating families will receive:
💵 $18 SGD reimbursement
🎖 An e-certificate of participation for your child

Please kindly register one child per family.

Sign up via this link https://bit.ly/PSMDstudy or scan the QR code below!

We’re excited to share that one of our lab’s studies has recently been published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly! 🎉

Have you ever wondered how children think about lying to protect their personal information online? Our study found that as children grow older, they view lying to protect online privacy more positively.

We invited 125 Singaporean children aged 6 to 8 to read stories about characters facing privacy dilemmas, such as being asked for their home address by a stranger or a friend, either on Facebook or in school. The characters could choose to: (1) Withhold their information (e.g., leave the site), (2) Lie (e.g., say they do not know), or (3) Tell the truth (e.g., share the information). Children then rated how “good” or “bad” each action was.

We found that when the requester was a stranger, children of all ages approved of lying or withholding information more than telling the truth, in both online and offline scenarios. However, when the requester was a friend, only 8-year-olds judged lying or withholding as more acceptable than truth-telling. Younger children tended to trust friends online too readily.

The results implied that even young children show a basic awareness of online privacy risks, and their understanding grows with age. While honesty is an important moral value, parents and educators can also help children understand that lying or withholding information can sometimes be a form of self-protection in digital spaces. Our findings also highlight the importance of teaching children about the complexity of online environments, such as how easily personal information can be shared or hacked, to help them become more cautious about their online privacy.

Authors: Su Kee Tan, Xiao Pan Ding, & Angela D. Evans
Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.10.003

We had such a lovely time welcoming many wonderful children to our lab! Thank you all for your support.💕
We’re still inviting 5- to 6-year-olds to take part in our study on moral behavior — you can sign up here: forms.office.com/r/9EqdwFvJ93

Wishing everyone a nice weekend and a joyful Deepavali! ✨

Ever wonder why people sometimes act in ways they know are wrong? In psychology, this is known as the moral knowledge–behaviour gap! While adults often justify their actions (“It’s not that bad!”), young children have not yet learned these reasoning strategies. Hence, the researchers in this study examined whether 3- to 6-year-old children’s moral judgments about cheating were linked to their actual cheating behaviour.

By using a “temptation test”, children were asked to guess which animal made a sound without peeking. In the final round, the sound did not match the animal, and the experimenter left the room, reminding the child not to peek and cheating was then measured if children had peeked in the final round to guess the identity of the animal. A month later, children listened to short stories where another child either cheated or acted honestly in different situations. They then rated how “good” or “bad” each character’s action was with smiley and frowny faces.

The researchers found that children’s likelihood of cheating did not change with age and even 3-year-olds could tell the difference between cheating and honesty. Younger children (ages 3 and 4) also judged honest behaviour more positively when they were explicitly reminded not to cheat. Findings also show that children who judged cheating more negatively were less likely to cheat. However, children who judged honesty more positively were not less likely to cheat.

This study suggests that moral education on honesty and cheating can reduce early cheating. For younger children, it is essential to be explicit about the rules so that they can understand the moral implications of honesty and cheating better and, consequently, cheat less.

Study Title: Moral Judgment and Cheating: Evidence of A Knowledge–Behavior Link in Early Childhood
Written By: Chua Xin Ru
Authors: Li Zhao, Weihao Yan, Junjie Peng, Paul L Harris
DOI: 10.1111/cdev.14243