Wanna Hear a Secret?: The Burden of Secret Concealment in Personal Relationships From the Confidant's Perspective

How Much Is It Weighing on You? Development and Validation of the Secrecy Burden Scale

Keeping a secret is often considered burdensome, with numerous consequences for well-being. However, there is no standardized measure of secrecy burden, and most studies focus on individual/cognitive burden without considering social/relational aspects. This research aimed to develop and validate a secrecy burden measure tapping both intrapersonal and interpersonal components. Study 1 used exploratory factor analysis to reveal a four-factor model of secrecy burden: Daily Personal Impact, Relationship Impact, Pull to Reveal, and Anticipated Consequences. Study 2 used confirmatory factor analysis to replicate this factor structure and found that each factor was uniquely associated with different emotional and well-being outcomes. Study 3 employed a longitudinal design and found that higher scores on each factor predicted lower authenticity and higher depression and anxiety 2 to 3 weeks later. Altogether, this research is the first step in standardizing a secrecy burden measure and applying it to real-world secrets and well-being outcomes.

"It's Always among Us. I Can't Act Like It's Not.": Women College Students' Perceptions of Physicians' Implicit Bias

Physicians have an opportunity to provide accurate and timely information about sexual behavior to individuals in their care. However, many young people, and in particular college women, are reticent to talk to their physicians about sexual behavior. One explanation for this reticence may be the fact that physicians' implicit bias has the potential to denigrate communication between physicians and patients. However, little is known about how patients perceive physicians' implicit bias, or to what extent it shapes a patient's beliefs about communicating with their physician. Qualitative analysis of in-depth, semi-structured interviews was used to describe and explain the way women college students perceive issues concerning physicians' implicit bias. Results were interpreted through the lens of Communication Privacy Management theory and revealed that participants either avoided or limited communication with a physician as a result of anticipating implicit bias. Major themes included "untangling identity and the effects of physicians' implicit bias" and "seeking to understand physicians' cognition and emotion." These findings have the potential to improve communication interventions both for women college students and healthcare professionals by introducing evidence of patients' perceptions of implicit biases along the intersection of race, young age, sexuality, and female gender in physician-patient communication about sexual behavior.

It takes two (or more): The social nature of secrets

The lion's share of research on secrecy focuses on how deciding to keep or share a secret impacts a secret-keeper's well-being. However, secrets always involve more than one person: the secret-keeper and those from whom the secret is kept or shared with. Although secrets are inherently social, their consequences for people's reputations and social relationships have been relatively ignored. Secrets serve a variety of social functions, including (1) changing or maintaining one's reputation, (2) conveying social utility, and (3) establishing friendship. For example, if Beth has a secret about a past misdemeanor, she might not tell any of her friends in order to maintain her reputation as an outstanding citizen. If Beth does share this secret with her friend Amy, Amy could interpret this as a sign of trust and think that their friendship is special. However, Amy could also choose to share Beth's secret with the rest of the friend group to show that she is a useful member with access to valuable information about others. Attention to these social functions of secrets emerges from a young age, and secrets play a prominent role in human relationships throughout the lifespan. After providing an overview of what is currently known about the relational consequences of secrecy in childhood and adulthood, we discuss how social and developmental psychologists could work together to broaden our understanding of the sociality of secrets. Future steps include incorporating more dyadic and social network analyses into research on secrets and looking at similar questions across ages. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Reasoning and Decision Making.

Secrets, Psychological Health, and the Fear of Discovery

Keeping secrets from one’s partner has been associated with lower well-being and relationship satisfaction. Previous research has suggested that individual differences in self-concealment account for these effects. However, we propose that the fear of discovery (FoD)—defined as the fear that one’s secret may be revealed by means other than deliberate disclosure—predicts the extent to which secrets affect well-being beyond the effects attributable to individual differences. Both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal survey (combined N = 471; 54.4% female; Mage = 39.5) of adults in romantic relationships confirmed that FoD predicted greater preoccupation with the secret, more negative affect, and less relationship satisfaction and commitment beyond that of self-concealment. Multilevel modeling in Study 2 indicated that changes in FoD predicted changes in preoccupation over time. The data are consistent with the notion that FoD promotes greater preoccupation, greater negative affect, and lower levels of relationship well-being.

Secretive and close? How sharing secrets may impact perceptions of distance

Having secrets is incredibly common. However, secrecy has only recently started to receive more attention in research. What has largely been neglected so far are the consequences of secret-sharing for the relationship between sharer and receiver. In this project, we aim to fill this gap. Previous research has shown that closeness can make secret-sharing more likely. Building on research from the self-disclosure and relationship literature, we experimentally investigate whether secret-sharing might in turn increase perceptions of closeness. In addition, we test the valence of the secrets shared as potential driver of the hypothesized effect, as negative secrets might signal a high level of trust, but might also present a burden to the receiver. To provide a holistic picture, we build on a variety of methods to investigate three perspectives: Study 1 focuses on the receiver and tests whether another person sharing secrets (vs. nonconfidential information) decreases distance in the eyes of the receiver. Study 2 investigates lay theories and tests how an observer perceives the relationship between two people who share secrets (vs. nonconfidential information). Study 3 tests whether these lay theories about sharing secrets are predictive of behavior, and how a sharer might choose secrets of negative or positive valence to decrease perceived distance on the receiver’s side. Our results will contribute to the understanding of how sharing secrets affects the way individuals think about each other, how close they feel to each other, and how they interact with each other.

The relative impacts of disclosure and secrecy: the role of (perceived) target response

This review examines the current trends in understanding the impact of individuals' decisions to either disclose information or continue to conceal it. As a whole, the evidence points to a relative benefit of disclosure over secret-keeping, but with clear cases, in which disclosure may be harmful. Advances in knowledge about factors that shape that impact, new research on the role verbal rumination with a partner following disclosure, and attention to the role of communal coping as an outcome of traumatic disclosures are addressed. In addition, recent re-conceptualization of secret-keeping, and investigations into the burden experienced by confidants are reviewed. Finally, a call for greater attention to the culture-specific impacts of disclosure decisions is made.