The aim of the present study was to examine the role of induced empathy and parent‐reported empathy (i.e., affective and cognitive) as underlying motives for children's prosocial lie‐telling tendencies. An experimental paradigm was used to elicit prosocial lies in children (N = 146, 7–11 years) in varying cost (low‐cost/high‐cost) and induction (empathy/neutral) conditions. Results indicate that induced empathy predicts prosocial lie likelihood and maintenance in low‐cost conditions, and that cognitive empathy is a predictor of lie‐likelihood. Post‐hoc analyses revealed that a large portion of children chose to prosocially share with the distressed confederate, regardless of whether they lied for them. Individuals who shared were more likely to share in low‐cost conditions, and also had higher cognitive empathy. Overall, this study provides unique insights into the role of empathy as an underlying cognitive process for children's prosocial decision‐making.

中文翻译：

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同情在儿童代价高昂的亲社会说谎行为中的作用

本研究的目的是检验诱导同情和父母报告的同情（即情感和认知）作为儿童亲社会说谎倾向的潜在动机的作用。实验范式被用来引起儿童亲社会的谎言（N= 146（7-11年），处于各种成本（低成本/高成本）和诱导（同情/中性）条件下。结果表明，诱发共情可以预测亲社会的说谎可能性和在低成本条件下的维持，而认知共情是说谎可能性的预测因子。事后分析表明，很大一部分儿童选择与处于困境的同盟者在社会上分享，而不管他们是否撒谎。共享的人更有可能在低成本条件下共享，并且认知移情也更高。总的来说，这项研究提供了关于移情作为儿童亲社会决策的潜在认知过程的作用的独特见解。