Liar Liar Pants On Fire

When you were a kid, did you often lie? A new study reveals that the best child liars possess superior verbal working memory skills. Researchers at the University of Sheffield gave more than a hundred children ages six to seven, cards with information about a fake cartoon character written on them. The kids were told not to look at the cards, and monitored with a hidden camera. The researchers then questioned the children, easily spotting the liars, and evaluated the liars' ability to lie in the face of two entrapment questions.

They found the kids best at lying fibbed each time, while poor liars only did so once or not at all. The kids were then given memory tests, and researcher discovered that talented liars showed a more powerful working memory with words, but not with pictures. This is likely because lying involves juggling a lot of verbal information and keeping "the researcher's perspective in mind." A study leader says that parents may not want their kids to lie, but "when their children are lying well, it means their children are becoming better at thinking and have good memory skills."