From telling tales about Santa Claus or the tooth fairy, to disciplining through lies (“If you don’t eat your vegetables, you won’t grow any taller”), to lying to protect a child’s feelings (your deceased pet “went to live on a farm”), many parents use lies as a part of parenting.

A recent article reviewed research on parents lying to children and the results are interesting and suggest that parental lying may have an important impact on children’s socialization and future well-being.

First and foremost, most parents lie to their children. In one study, 78% of American parents, and 100% of Chinese parents, admitted to lying to their children (although it is reassuring that only a small percentage of U.S. adults say that their parents lied to them often).

According to social learning theory, children learn behaviors from........

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