Premium
Temporary, inconsistent, and null effects of a moral story and instruction on honesty
Author(s) -
Sauter Jessica A.,
Stocco Corey S.,
Luczynski Kevin C.,
Moline Adam D.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of applied behavior analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1938-3703
pISSN - 0021-8855
DOI - 10.1002/jaba.552
Subject(s) - honesty , lying , psychology , context (archaeology) , consistency (knowledge bases) , moral development , social psychology , developmental psychology , moral behavior , moral reasoning , moral disengagement , medicine , paleontology , geometry , mathematics , biology , radiology
Lying during childhood is a common concern for caregivers. Lee et al. (2014) showed that a moral story and instruction implying reinforcers for honesty produced statistically significant improvements in children admitting a transgression. We evaluated the influence of this moral story and instruction on the consistency of honest reports when reinforcement favored lying in the context of reporting answers to math problems. The moral story and instruction produced temporary, inconsistent, or null effects across participants. However, reinforcing accurate reports produced consistent improvements in telling the truth.