Predictions based on Sweetser's folkloristic model of lying, which emphasizes the critical contribution of social factors to definitions of lie, were tested. Eight vignettes were presented to 12-, 16-, and 19-year-olds. Half were situations of prototypic lie-telling, and half were prototypic truth-telling. Each vignette, depicting a speaker making a statement in either an informational setting or a politeness setting under conditions intending to help or harm, was rated for degree of agreement or dis agreement that the statement was a lie. The effects of age, help-harm condition, and setting were significant in prototypic lieand truth-telling situations Sweetser's model was supported and the concept of lying appears to be a developmental, cognitive-social construct.
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