“Second, research on socially sanctioned lies has focused almost exclusively on the role of the conventional component. For example, the role of ToM understanding has barely been considered in the study of white and blue lies told by children. Research should simultaneously assess children's ToM and socio-moral understanding to reveal how intentional and conventional components interact to influence the development of prosocial lying. »Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay According to Lee, there are two fundamental driving forces behind why and how children lie: the intentional component and the conventional component. The intentional component is applicable in situations where children lie to hide their transgressions, such as breaking a lamp and then lying and saying that a "ghost" broke the object for them. They intentionally lie to cover up their actions, a behavior observed in children as young as 3 years old. The conventionality component encompasses all prosocial lies, ie. white and blue lies, told by children as a way to create positive social interactions. Social conventions dictate that it is sometimes better to tell a nice lie rather than the hard truth, and children as young as 5 have been found to tell these conventional lies. These lies are often found in situations where politeness is an important factor, and it has been found that older children are more likely to lie to be nice than their younger counterparts. In all of these studies, the two components were analyzed individually, with separate experiments being conducted for the intentionality component and the conventionality component. The quote I selected argues that we need to move beyond viewing these two factors as two separate entities, and instead conduct research to see how they fit into each other. Theory of mind (ToM) is “the notion that individuals have intentions, desires, and beliefs and will act accordingly” (Lee 91). This idea has been attributed solely to intentionality, and its interactions with the conventional component have remained completely unexplored. As Lee said, ToM hardly factored into a child's white and blue lies, even though children surely lie intentionally. Not all white and blue lies are told accidentally, so it doesn't make sense that more research hasn't been done on a child's ToM when telling prosocial lies. White and blue lies are told in an attempt to create or maintain positive change, such as lying and telling someone they look good when they really don't, as a way to be polite. Until now, prosocial lying has been classified exclusively under the conventionality component, but I agree with Lee when he states that we need to examine how the combination of intentionality and conventionality components influences the development of lying prosocial in a child..