One way that such appeals may influence behavior is suggested by the social cognitive theory of
moral action (Bandura, 1991), which proposes that people’s behavior is heavily influenced by what
they believe will happen as a result of the behavior. External and internal factors shape people’s outcome
expectancies and actions. Thus, external and internal factors may influence children’s decision to
tell the truth. Namely, young children rely almost entirely on guidance from others to encourage their
behavior. This can be through external physical factors (i.e., punishments) or external social factors
(i.e., social sanctions of others such as pleasing another person)