A new study found that children who are lied to are more likely to become cheats and liars as they grow up.

Sometimes adults are forced to lie to kids. Researchers of a new study warn that this may have dire consequences. University of California, San Diego, researchers found that children who are lied to are more likely to become cheaters and liars as they grow up.

 "This is the first experiment confirming what we might have suspected: Lying by an adult affects a child's honesty," Leslie Carver, a professor at the university, said in a press release.

One hundred and eighty six children aged 3 to 7 took part in the study. A randomly selected group of these participants were told by an experimenter that they would gain access to a bowl of candy in the next room if they came and played a game. The experimenter later confessed to the children that there were no candies and it was just a lie to coax them into playing the game. The other group of participants were not lied to but simply invited to play the game.

The experiment required the children to identify character toys they couldn't see by their sounds. Some of these sounds included a "Tickle me" audio clip for Elmo; "I love cookies" for Cookie Monster; and "There is a rumbly in my tummy" for Winnie the Pooh. One sound was a deliberately tricky exception: Beethoven's "Fur Elise," which is not associated with any commercially available character toy.

As the sounds began to play, the experimenter left the room pretending to take a phone call. The children remained alone in the room for 90 seconds and were tempted to take a peek at the toy making the sound. On returning, the experimenter asked the children to truthfully admit whether they had cheated or not.

Researchers found that 5, 6 and 7-year-old kids that had been lied to about the candies were more likely to cheat and then lie about their actions. Researchers were not able to determine the reason behind this. However, they ruled in the possibility that the children were trying to imitate the experimenter or were making judgments about the importance of honesty to this adult.

"Perhaps the children did not feel the need to uphold their commitment to tell the truth to someone who they perceived as a liar," the authors said.

No such influence was found in children below the age of four, probably because they don't have very sophisticated theory-of-mind abilities at that age.

"The actions of parents suggest that they do not believe that the lies they tell their children will impact the child's own honesty. The current study casts doubt on that belief," the author said. "All sorts of grown-ups may have to re-examine what they say to kids. Even a 'little white lie' might have consequences."

Findings of the study were published online in the journal Developmental Science