Scientific FrontlineMar 16
#Children begin to comprehend and utilize #deception significantly earlier than previously established, with deceptive behaviors emerging before the first year of life and growing increasingly sophisticated by age three.
#Psychology #BehavioralScience #CognitiveScience #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/03/psy03162601.html
Research shows some babies can grasp art of deception even before their first birthday

A new study has mapped by age young children’s ability to understand and practice deception

Show threadbayo
@sflorg Deception is this foundational and this early, honesty is not our default state that corruption interrupts. It is a disciplined achievement, something we construct, practice, and choose, against a cognitive backdrop that was always capable of going the other way. That's a more honest account of human moral development than most of us were raised with.
Mar 16 at 10:33amWeb
Show threadScientific FrontlineMar 16
@bayo
More of a primal instinct in my opinion.
Deception is fundamentally an adaptive strategy for survival and resource acquisition, observable across countless taxa. From Batesian mimicry in insects to the broken-wing display of the killdeer bird, organisms utilize deception to avoid predation or secure resources. The article briefly acknowledges this by mentioning chimpanzees, capuchin monkeys, and antelopes, but it quickly abandons the biological 'why' in favor of the developmental 'how'.
Show threadScientific FrontlineMar 16
@bayo
Early childhood deception is not a behavioral anomaly or a moral failing, but a deeply embedded, highly evolved survival tactic shared with our closest genetic relatives. Well, that's my opinion.