Liar, liar

Kids lie all the time. And the smarter they are, the better they do it. Not only that, we facilitate this as parents. We encourage it, they learn it from us.

These are some of the fascinating conclusions from Victoria Talwar's research team at McGill University in Canada. I read about them in Po Bronson's terrific article for the New York Times magazine.

Actually, how I came to read it is revealing in terms of how people pass information around. My brother in law, a single man with no children who lives on the other side of the world, read it. He sent the link to his sister, my wife, because he thought she'd be interested. (I am not sure what this says about my children) She was, but she thought I would be too. I printed it - I'm too much of a digital immigrant to read long documents on a screen - and there it sat on my desk for two weeks. Eventually I read it.

The upshot of all this was a hurried email conversation with Victoria Talwar, then en route to a conference, and an agreement that I'd interview her early on Tuesday morning my time.

In the meantime, I am trying, with only some success, not to put my kids in a position where lying is easier than telling the truth.