Little Kids Can Tell When You're Fibbing. Here's Why They Let You.

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Study: Preschoolers Know When You’re Making an Excuse – or Trying to Do Good

Children – as young as three – can tell when you’re using a bad excuse, according to a Duke University study.

Researchers, who analyzed 64 kids, between the ages of three and five years old, recorded their responses to a series of videos. In them, puppets promised to show them a toy, but failed to deliver on that.

The puppets then provided a good or bad excuse, like helping a friend with homework, or wanting to watch TV.

The children tended to agree that it was wrong to go back on a promise; but they were more understanding when puppets provided a good reason.

Study authors believe these results indicate toddlers are quite capable of understanding that obligations to help others take priority over selfish desires.

Noteworthy: A lame excuse was as bad as no excuse at all.

“Previous research has suggested that in some cases, young kids will just take any reason to be better than no reason at all,” study author Leon Li said. “But here we showed that kids do pay attention to the actual content” of what you say. And: They can often surmise why.

The researchers add that any adult who has ever used the classic fallback phrase “because I said so,” should take note of these findings, and avoid similarly lame excuses in the future.

Learn more, here: (Study Finds)

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