Jun 18, 2014 10:00 AM EDT By J Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Kids are motivated to be honest by moral tales with positive outcomes, according to a recent study.

Canadian researchers found that a moral story that praises a character's honesty is more effective at getting young children to tell the truth than a story that emphasizes the negative repercussions of lying. This means that stories such as "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and "Pinocchio" may not be effective cautionary tales when it comes to inspiring honest behavior in children.

"As parents of young children, we wanted to know how effective the stories actually are in promoting honesty," Victoria Talwar, co-author of the study and researcher from McGill University, said in a statement. "Is it 'in one ear, out the other,' or do children listen and take the messages to heart?"

For the study, researchers conducted an experiment with more than 250 children ages 3 to 7. Each child played a game that required guessing the identity of a toy based on the sound it made. In the middle of the game, the experimenter left the room for a minute to grab a book, instructing the child not to peek at a toy that was left on the table. For most children, this temptation was too hard to resist.

When the coordinator of the study returned, she read the child a story, either "The Tortoise or the Hare," "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," "Pinocchio," or "George Washington and the Cherry Tree." Afterward, the experimenter asked the child to tell the truth about whether he or she peeked at the toy.

Based on their findings, "Pinocchio" and "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" - which associate lying with negative consequences, such as public humiliation and even death - were no more effective at promoting honest behavior than "The Tortoise and the Hare," a fable unrelated to honesty.

 They found that the apocryphal tale about a young George Washington seemed to inspire the kids to admit to peeking.

Researchers said children who heard the tale in which Washington is praised for confessing his transgression were three times more likely to tell the truth than their peers who heard other stories.

Talwar said the story about George Washington may be effective because it demonstrates "the positive consequences of being honest by giving the message of what the desired behavior is, as well as demonstrating the behavior itself."

Researchers said the study shows that to promote moral behavior such as honesty, emphasizing the positive outcomes of honesty rather than the negative consequences of dishonesty is the key. However, they caution that more research is necessary to determine whether moral stories influence kids' behavior long-term.

The findings were recently published Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

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