Parents with greater religiosity lie less to their children

Abstract

The current study extends the limited body of research on the relationship between parental lying and religiosity by investigating 4 types of lies told by Singaporean parents. We found that in contrast to Chinese and American parents (Heyman, Hsu, Fu, & Lee, 2013), greater religiosity among Singaporean parents is related to less lying to children, with the exception of white lies. This pattern of findings suggests that the effect of religiosity on parental lying may be culturally and/or religion specific. Such findings expand the current literature and provide insight into parenting practices that are nearly universal, as well as into the kinds of experiences that are likely to influence children as they begin to form their own understanding of lying.