‘Telling children they are smart makes them cheat’

Praising your child for being clever is likely to make them cheat, a study has found.

In a report entitled “Praising young children for being smart promotes cheating” published in the journal Psychological Science, pre-school children who were praised for being smart were more likely to cheat subsequently than those who were praised for doing “great” in a particular task.

Prof Kang Lee, leader of the study and a child education expert at the University of Toronto in Canada, said: “Giving children the wrong kind of praise makes them dishonest.”