Can you really tell if a kid is lying? | Kang Lee

Are children poor liars? Do you think you can easily detect their lies? Developmental researcher Kang Lee studies what happens physiologically to children when they lie. They do it a lot, starting as young as two years old, and they're actually really good at it. Lee explains why we should celebrate when kids start to lie and presents new lie-detection technology that could someday reveal our hidden emotions.

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[maxherman]

Anyone else start grinning uncontrollably when accused of telling a lie even though you are telling the truth and then they think you are lying because you are smiling?

[xendurr]

"I am my father."

*BIG. BRAIN.*

[missymc]

I once babysat my nephew, he was 6 at the time, and we made his mother a craft to give on mother’s day. I told him we couldn’t tell his mom because it was a surprise, and that if she asked what we did during the day, not to say we made a craft. When his mom came home, she promptly asked what we did together and he said, “We didn’t make you a mother’s day craft” 😂😂😂

[izumika]

When I was a kid I learned to lie often because I'm very scared of the consequences or trouble that I will face. I think that if the parents/guardians teach their child that "saying the truth is okay" than "lying is bad". Like most of kids have trust issue with their parents bcuz parents will say "I won't do anything bad to u, just tell the truth" then goes hitting, yelling, cursing and saying bad things to their kids. I know not all parents do this and sometimes is the kids fault.

[Rockstar.cat]

The worst is accidentally smiling while telling the truth, and then everyone thinks you're lying.

[nightcorebelles]

Don’t you hate when someone would say “you’re lying because you’re smiling!” Like what does that have to do with anything....

[clarahamiltoons]

My natural reaction to being under pressure is to smile, or laugh, or tell a joke, anything to relive that pressure. It has lead to many people believing I am a liar, when I was telling the whole truth. I’ve tried so hard to stop it, but it just builds up and makes it worse.

[jessicacat]

When my little sister was 4, she told a gigantic and expensive lie: her stomach hurts. I know it sounds simple, but my parents, good parents as they were, took her seriously. They actually spent thousands of Vietnam Dollars to see what was wrong with her. And they were SO angry and hurt at her, so my parents are bad lie-detectors. But for some reason, they always detect my lies.

[HankTheTank]

Did anyone else think his opening joke was actually pretty clever? "Wow, this is the most honest group of people I have ever met!" If you think about it, he's either saying they're honest for admitting to lying, or being sarcastic and saying they're actually dishonest because so many of them lied.

[crbe]

If a child has strict parents they will most likely become sneaky and good at lying

[wowJhil]

As a kid I remember that it was natural to start smiling, when accused for doing something wrong. And obviously, kinder garden teachers that don't know much at all would think that you were the one!

[reported]

When you're accused of lying but you start laughing or getting red etc because the person puts you under a bunch of pressure and like harshly interrogates you

[mspalert]

My mother says all the time, "I always catch you when you try to lie to me, so why do you even bother?" And I'm just sitting there like, "You don't actually realize how many times you haven't caught me."

[adriatic]

I'm an only child and when I was 6 I broke a picture frame. My mom asked me about it and I said the cat did it. We didn't have a cat.

[acricucci]

I think one of the biggest lies that we as parents experience regularly from young children is “it wasn’t me” or “ I didn’t do it.”

[torp]

My father always thought I was lieing, so I became unsure of reality. I decided, as a for year old girl, to always lie when my father asked me about something. This way I was able to save the truth and remember what really did happen.

[johnkimuelbello]

"Wow, this is the most honest group of people I've ever met"

It works whether the crowd raises their hands or not

[hockeylegend]

The worst thing is being accused of lying when you're not.

[genshindinthewrongimpact]

I keep smiling whenever asked if I've lied, so everyone assumes I've lied.
I don't know why I can't control it at all!

[ddz]

Having grown up in an explosive and abusive household I learned how to read facial tells very early. I know when someone is lying, I can tell when someone is bored or distracted. It's a good thing and a bad thing to be skillful at.