This study examined the extent to which children are willing to be coached into giving false descriptions of events and children's ability to provide such coached descriptions. Participants were 37 children from 3 years and 7 months to 7 years and 1 month of age. When children were urged to trick a "friend" of the experimenter, 1 child refused, 5 hesitated and then agreed, and 14 agreed immediately. Only 11 of the 19 actually carried through with the plan. Younger and older children appeared equally willing to go along with the trick, and were equally likely to spontaneously confess or to resist interrogation. Age differences began to emerge, however, when the quality of attempts to deceive was inspected. Results suggest that children can be coached into providing false statements, but the coaching is not easy and does not work very well, and its effects do not last very long for most children. (RH)