Infant Deception by Ten Months

A large parent‑survey study reports that roughly one quarter of infants show basic deceptive behaviors by about 10 months, and half by 17 months, with 16 identifiable types of deception that appear in age‑linked stages as cognitive and linguistic skills develop. The finding reframes lying not as a late moral failure but as an early, normal milestone tied to representational thought and memory capacity. — If deception is a normal early milestone, parents, teachers, clinicians, and courts should recalibrate expectations about honesty, responsibility, and how early behavior predicts later social outcomes.