Trilinguals who have low deceptive tendency prefer lying in their mother tongue

This study investigated the function of authentic mother tongue in trilinguals, the person who masters speaking Cantonese, Mandarin, and English were taken as the Participants. Meanwhile, considering the influence of individual deceptive tendencies, this study will further explore the relationship between language, lying behavior, and deceptive tendencies. The Spot-the-Difference Task and the False Statement Task were adopted, and the result showed that using English to lie is most difficult, but there is no difference between Cantonese and Mandarin when lying. When lying, People who have a low deceptive tendency prefer to use their mother tongue, while people who are a high deceptive tendency have no preference when choosing the language. It means people who are a high deceptive tendency can use language freely to lie. The experiment suggested that lying tendency will affect what language people choose for lying. Overall, the study not only discusses the role of Cantonese as a real mother tongue, but also puts forward that we should pay attention to personal morality when research lies.