On March 15, the television show Primetime Live with Diane Sawyer focused on honesty in everyday life and asked Michael Lewis, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Director of The Institute for the Study of Child Development at UMDNJ- Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, to tell the truth about lying. "Socially acceptable lies form the glue of our society," explains the researcher. Lewis believes that lying is a very common activity evident everywhere from presidential politics to international affairs. "In a single day, most of us lie a minimum of 25 times and by age 2 to 3 years, 70 percent of all children lie very well," he says.

Lewis has been studying kids’ behavior from infancy to adolescence for decades in controlled laboratory settings and when the media asks, "Why do children...?" he is often the expert on call. "What we’ve discovered is that, indeed, people lie to protect themselves from punishment and everyone does it." Though most of us understand that little white lies are okay, when the area of children’s lying comes up, we worry. Yet, Lewis’ research has shown that, "if children don’t lie to protect themselves, something is wrong." Data suggests that children who can’t lie "have lower IQs and are less well adjusted. So any parent who thinks his or her child should always tell the truth is in for a surprise," Lewis says.

In a continuation of this research, two new studies support his conviction that "lying has a universal feature" with little cultural difference. When placed in similar circumstances, even Japanese preschoolers, who are more obedient than their American counterparts, lie just as quickly when they do give in to temptation or misbehave. Lewis and his associates have also been asking, "Do children know they are doing something wrong when they lie?" For the truth, the researchers went straight to the videotapes looking for nonverbal clues. The facial expressions of "discomfort and regret," after being caught in a forbidden act, were immediately apparent "even in children at very young ages." Rather than being atypical behaviors, Lewis concludes, "Lying and deception are natural."