The Roots of Honesty: How Family Environment Shapes Children's Truthfulness 

Since 2011, a research team including Fabian Kosse from C-BEAM and researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Oxford has followed approximately 700 families to study how children's development is shaped by their home environments. Focusing particularly on families with low educational attainment and limited socioeconomic resources, the study explores how such disadvantages influence behavioral outcomes — including children's tendency to lie.

A central finding is that honesty is not an innate, fixed trait but one that is strongly shaped by relationships and experiences. In a randomized controlled trial, over 200 children from disadvantaged backgrounds were randomly assigned to participate in a year-long mentoring program, receiving weekly one-on-one support from volunteer mentors. Compared to the control group, these children exhibited greater honesty and improved behavioral outcomes, underscoring the potential of stable, trust-based relationships to foster socio-emotional development. 

This work has implications beyond psychology, informing economics and public policy. It suggests that honesty and related behavioral traits are malleable, particularly in response to sustained, trust-based relationships. For policymakers, this highlights the potential of targeted, low-cost programs to reduce behavioral gaps early in life and foster resilience in disadvantaged populations.