Children's Use of a Verbal-Nonverbal Consistency Principle to Infer Truth and Lying

Abstract

Children's use of a verbal-nonverbal consistency principle to infer truth and lying was investigated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, kindergarten (5-year-olds), second- (7-year-olds), and fourth-grade (9-year-olds) children judged the truthfulness of stimulus persons whose verbal communication and nonverbal communication varied in valence (positive, neutral, and negative). In Experiment 2, children from the same 3 grades were presented part of the verbal communications on audiotape and a similar set of general verbal communications. They were asked to predict what facial expression the speaker would show if he or she was telling the truth or lying. The findings yielded by both experiments indicated that the use of the verbal-nonverbal consistency principle increased with age. Use of that principle was demonstrated by fourth grade children who judged that telling the truth, as opposed to lying, was shown by a consistency between the affective valence of the verbal and the nonverbal communications.