Can classic moral stories with anthropomorphized animal characters promote children's honesty?

Moral stories featuring animal characters have historically been used to cultivate virtues in children. The present study examined whether moral stories with anthropomorphized animal characters are effective at promoting honesty in 3- to 6-year-old Singaporean children (N = 228). Honesty was assessed using the temptation resistance paradigm. Results showed moral stories had no effect on the honesty of 5- to 6-year-olds. In contrast, for 3- to 4-year-olds, the effectiveness of moral stories differed based on the type of character. Compared to a control story where wrongdoing occurred but truth-telling did not, moral stories featuring humans were effective at promoting honesty in 3- to 4-year-old children, while moral stories featuring anthropomorphized animals (elephants in Study 1; rats in Study 2) were not as effective as the moral stories featuring humans. The current study sheds light on how to modify classic moral stories to maximize their usefulness at promoting honesty.