The article by Myers, Goodman, et al. considers child lying in the context of hearsay exceptions for statements by children alleging abuse. Under Idaho v. Wright, 497 U.S. 805 (1990), such hearsay can be admitted only if it is accompanied by circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness. A child’s motive to lie and his or her character for veracity are among the relevant circumstances. Thus judges, as well as juries, must ponder whether certain children are too young to lie.

The article considers the general capacity of children to make false statements for the purpose of deception and their capacity to tell lies when coached to do so by adults.

Some researchers have concluded that children younger than four cannot engage in “genuine deception” because they do not yet understand that others can form false beliefs. Other studies, though, as well as many anecdotes from parents, show children attempting to deceive at ages as young as two and a half.

One study reviewed in the article explored how well coaching children to lie works. Twenty children aged two and a half to eight years were coached by an adult to tell a second adult that they had played with a toy when, in fact, they had not. Sixty percent (12) of the children agreed to do so, but only 35% (7) of the children maintained the deception throughout their interview by the second adult. The children who persisted in the lie either knew the coaching adult well or were among the older children in the sample.

The authors conclude that the number of young children who persistently lied in response to coaching was small but not trivial.