Children come to recognize that the impressions one makes on other people can be controlled and managed. In this chapter, the authors situate the development of such “self-presentation” in the moral context, with attention to a range of relevant social, cultural, cognitive, motivational, and emotional processes. Children’s appreciation of self-presentational tactics such as self-promotion, modesty, and ingratiation is reviewed before turning specifically to the factors involved in deception and truth-telling. The authors analyze the emergence of children’s self-presentational competencies in shaping both their own individual reputations and the reputations of the social groups with which they identify, especially in contexts where moral and social-conventional rules have been transgressed. Key goals for future research that illuminates the nature and implications of children’s moral self-presentation are identified.
