Children who tell ‘blunt truth’ are considered ‘rude’ by adults, finds research
A recent study found that, children who speak the ‘blunt truth’ are often perceived as ‘rude’ by adults, while parents of truth spoken children are sometimes shamed by others.
According to research published in the Journal of Moral Education, experts studied 267 children and adults for the effects of telling the truth and lying on the social life and asked volunteers questions and answers by showing them different types of videos.
The 171 people involved in the study were adults, ranging in age from 18 to 67 years, while about two dozen volunteers were aged 6 to 15, and the rest were middle-aged minors.
Half of the volunteers were women and all the volunteers were shown videos and asked questions and answers, while after the videos they were also asked how they would react to their own answer if they were someone’s parent.
The research found that children who told the ‘blunt truth’ were perceived as more ‘rude’, and parents of such children reported that they were sometimes embarrassed by their blunt truth.
According to experts, if a child bluntly expressed displeasure over a gift received by adults, like ‘I do not like this gift’, the child would be judged harshly by adults.
The experts involved in the research said that children are advised by their parents not to tell ‘lies’ while they are expected to tell the truth, but they lack the ability to tell the truth and lie at the right time.
Experts further stated that, children cannot understand what is socially acceptable, truth or lie, and how to say it, which is why they usually speak bluntly, which they are considered ‘rude’.
The next steps for the research will be to investigate how these early socialisation processes affect the development of children’s truth- and lie-telling over time as they grow into adults.
