The Telegraph (via Boingboing.net) reports that researchers have concluded that babies are not at all the innocent little creatures they pretend to be. On the contrary,
Behavioural experts have found that infants begin to lie from as young as six months. Simple fibs help to train them for more complex deceptions in later life.
Infants quickly learnt that using tactics such as fake crying and pretend laughing could win them attention. By eight months, more difficult deceptions became apparent, such as concealing forbidden activities or trying to distract parents’ attention.
One suspects that these “experts” must be childless men and women. Otherwise, how could it be possible that “Until now, psychologists had thought the developing brains were not capable of the difficult art of lying until four years old”?
