Discover! >> Babies Can Master The Art Of Deceit Even Before Walking & Talking

Babies can grasp the art of deception even before their first birthday, a study has found.

Some are skilled in sneaky tactics such as exaggeration, denial, pretending not to hear an adult speak, or hiding things by the time they are toddlers.

A quarter of infants start to understand deception by 10 months, rising to half at 17 months, according to University of Bristol researchers.

By the age of three, children are more proficient, creative, and frequent fabricators, experts claimed.

Elena Hoicka, professor of education and the study’s lead author, said: “It was fascinating to uncover how children’s understanding and usage of deception evolves from a surprisingly young age and builds in their first years so they become quite adept and cunning ‘little liars’.”

Parents of 750 children aged up to 47 months from the UK, US, Canada, and Australia were asked about their child’s development, with the youngest example of deception seen in an eight-month-old baby.

Sneaky habits were found to be frequent, and 130 parents reported children engaging in 16 types of deception before 47 months. These included pretending not to hear to avoid answering or doing something, and hiding things such as toys so that others can’t have them.

Denial, doing forbidden activities in secret, excuses, exaggeration, and understatement were also among the deceptions used.

Pretending not to understand was sometimes a response when a child was asked to help with a chore, while fabrication by inventing something and withholding information were other sneaky skills.

Children also deceived by restructuring responses, keeping just parts of the truth in their answers while changing other elements.

Being vague by leaving out details on purpose and using distraction were also useful deception tools, the study found.

Prof Hoicka said: “From two years, deception tends to be action-based, like pretending not to hear a parent say ‘time to tidy up’, or eating chocolate but shaking their head to say ‘no’ when asked if they ate it.”

She added: “Parents can be reassured that deception is entirely normal in toddler development.

“They can also look at our findings to know which types of deception to expect by age, so they can better understand and communicate with their children in order to stay one step ahead of their deceit.”