Children's false denials fool adults

BOSTON, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Adults are easily fooled when a child denies an actual event occurred, but do a bit better at when a child makes up an event, U.S. researchers say.

University of California-Davis researchers said more than 100 adults were asked to evaluate the veracity of children ages 3 and 5 interviewed about "true" and "false" events on videotapes.

The adults were relatively good at detecting accounts of events that never happened, but were apt to mistakenly believe children's denials of actual events, the researchers said.

"The large number of children coming into contact with the legal system -- mostly as a result of abuse cases -- has motivated intense scientific effort to understand children's true and false reports," study author Gail Goodman said in a statement. "Arguably even more important, however, are adults' abilities to evaluate children's reports."

The findings suggest adults are better at detecting false reports than they are at detecting false denials, Goodman said.

"While accurately detecting false reports protects innocent people from false allegations, the failure to detect false denials could mean that adults fail to protect children who falsely deny actual victimization," Goodman said.

The research was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychology Association in Boston.