THE MORAL STORY STUDY: EXAMINING THE ROLES OF MORAL STORIES AND ANTICIPATORY EMOTIONS IN PREDICTING CHILDREN'S HONEST BEHAVIOUR

Abstract

Lying is a long-standing problematic behaviour in children, where efforts for mitigation by parents and educators have been met with little success. This study adopted a preventive approach by comparing the effectiveness of three moral stories in preventing lying and promoting honesty amongst three- to six-year-old Singaporean children. A modified temptation resistance paradigm (TRP) was conducted, where participants listened to a moral story regarding honesty before the final stage of TRP. Besides the control condition, stories varied on honest or dishonest behaviours and their subsequent outcomes. As hypothesised, in comparison with control stories, only positive moral stories displaying honest behaviour and its consequence (i.e., praise) significantly increased truth-telling. The findings also shed light on how emotions elicited during moral story-telling serve as mechanisms for encouraging honesty. Specifically, the absence of contempt during the witnessing of honest behaviour was revealed to be a marginally significant predictor of truth-telling in the positive condition. Contrary to previous speculations, the results suggest that it is the witnessing of an honest behaviour, and not its eventual consequence, that promotes honesty. Practical implications of these findings on the local moral education scene, as well as future directions for research are discussed.