Are There Limits to Collectivism? Culture and Children's Reasoning About Lying to Conceal a Group Transgression

Abstract

This study explored the effects of collectivism on lying to conceal a group transgression. Seven-, 9-, and 11-year-old US and Chinese children (N = 374) were asked to evaluate stories in which protagonists either lied or told the truth about their group's transgression and were then asked about either the protagonist's motivations or justification for their own evaluations. Previous research suggests that children in collectivist societies such as China find lying for one's group to be more acceptable than do children from individualistic societies such as the United States. The current study provides evidence that this is not always the case: Chinese children in this study viewed lies told to conceal a group's transgressions less favourably than did US children. An examination of children's reasoning about protagonists' motivations for lying indicated that children in both countries focused on an impact to self when discussing motivations for protagonists to lie for their group. Overall, results suggest that children living in collectivist societies do not always focus on the needs of the group.

Figure 1

Average evaluations for lies and truths by country and age.

Figure 2

Justification question responses by country.

Figure 3

Justification responses as predictors of evaluations in US and China.

Figure 4

Motivation question responses by country.

Figure 5

Motivation responses as predictors of evaluations in US and China.