Secrets, Psychological Health, and the Fear of Discovery

Davis, Christopher G.; Brazeau, Hannah; Xie, Elisabeth Bailin; McKee, Kathleen Burke

doi:10.1177/0146167220946195

Cited by 17 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…This effect has been found across a diverse variety of secrets, multiple measures of well-being, and with multiple participant populations, including a multi-international sample hailing from 30 different countries (McDonald et al, 2020; Slepian et al, 2017; Slepian, Greenaway & Masicampo, 2020; Slepian & Moulton-Tetlock, 2019). Cognitive preoccupation has been shown to be one of the clearest harms of secrecy (see also Davis et al, 2020; Maas et al, 2012; Slepian et al, 2015). Hence, repetitively and passively thinking about one’s secrets is associated with lower well-being.…”

Section: F Repetitive Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A process model of having and keeping secrets.

Slepian¹

2022

Psychological Review

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Secrecy is a common and consequential human experience, and yet the literature lacks an integrative theoretical model that captures this broad experience. Whereas initial research focused on concealment (an action a person may take to keep a secret), recent literature documents the broader experience of having a secret. For instance, even if a secret is not being concealed in the moment, one's mind can still wander to thoughts of the secret with consequences for well-being. Integrating several disparate literatures, the present work introduces a new model of secrecy. Rather than define secrecy as an action (active concealment), the model defines secrecy as an intention to keep information unknown by one or more others. Like any other intention, secrecy increases sensitivity to internal or external cues related to the intention. Critically, secret-relevant thoughts are cued in one of two broad contexts: (a) during a social interaction that calls for concealment, and (b) the situations outside of those social interactions, where concealment is not required. Having a secret come to mind in these two very different situations evokes a set of distinct processes and outcomes. Concealment (enacting one's secrecy intention) predicts monitoring, expressive inhibition, and alteration, which consumes regulatory resources and may result in lower interaction quality. Mind-wandering to the secret (when concealment is not required) involves passively thinking about the content of the secret. Engagement with these thoughts may lead to repetitive thinking and rumination, reflection on how one feels about the secret, efforts to cope, or specific plans for how to handle the secret. The model brings together a number of literatures with implications for secrecy, identity concealment, relationships, mind-wandering, coping, health and well-being.

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Section: F Repetitive Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A process model of having and keeping secrets.

Slepian¹

2022

Psychological Review

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“…The extent to which the participants were concerned that their secret would be discovered by their partner through a means other than self‐disclosure was assessed using the Fear of Discovery scale (Davis et al., 2021). This scale includes five items, to which participants were asked to indicate their agreement using a 5‐point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, they showed that increases in fear of discovery over time predicted increases in preoccupation. Further, greater fear of discovery at one point in time was able to predict increases in preoccupation at subsequent points in time (but not the reverse; greater preoccupation did not predict subsequent increases in fear of discovery; Davis et al., 2021). Although not all secrets will elicit this fear, we believe that those that do are likely to be more preoccupying, over and above the perceived cost of revelation and the frequency of cues.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Fear of discovery refers to the fear – rational or not – that another person (e.g., a spouse) will uncover the secret by means other than self‐disclosure. Davis, Brazeau, Xie, and McKee (2021) demonstrated that to the extent that one is fearful that one’s spouse or partner is able to or on the path towards discovering one’s secret, the more one tends to be preoccupied by the secret. Indeed, they showed that increases in fear of discovery over time predicted increases in preoccupation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because one may be cued to remember a secret in diverse and unexpected ways that may emerge or change over time, we assess the frequency of cues at each of the four waves. Fear of discovery is also known to fluctuate over time as evidence of one’s secret emerges and submerges, and as suspicions arise and subside (Davis et al., 2021), so it too was assessed at each wave. As it is unknown the extent to which perceived cost of disclosure changes over time, we elected to ask about it at each assessment time as well.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Factors promoting greater preoccupation with a secret

Davis

Brazeau

2021

British J Social Psychol

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The secrets that are most taxing to one’s health and well‐being are those that are the most preoccupying to the secret‐keeper. However, it is currently unclear what makes a secret preoccupying. We conducted a four‐wave longitudinal study to assess four factors that should contribute to one’s degree of preoccupation with a secret kept from one’s spouse/romantic partner: perceived cost of revealing the secret, frequency of cues, fear of discovery, and individual differences in self‐concealment. Multilevel modelling of data from an online sample of 143 adults (51% women, 49% men; Mage = 39.9, SD = 9.3) keeping a secret from their spouse/partner indicated that all four factors independently and positively predict greater preoccupation with a secret. Further, the first three factors also significantly predicted how preoccupied one would be with one’s secret two weeks later, taking into account how preoccupied one was with the secret at present. We conclude that the characteristics of the secret, as well as the secret‐keeper, can contribute to how preoccupying a secret is to an individual.

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When secrets come to mind: Preoccupation, suppression and engagement

Davis,

Wright,

McMillan

2023

Euro J Social Psych

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When secrets come to mind, do people try to suppress them or do they engage with them? Whereas earlier research suggested that people try to suppress secrets, recent work suggests that people often engage with their secrets. Although thought suppression tends to be associated with greater distress, engagement may be ameliorative. In two longitudinal studies of 653 adults (55% women; Mage = 41.3, SD = 12.4) keeping a secret from their partner, we show that engagement with and suppression of secrets are highly positively related. Like suppression, the more people engage with secrets, the more negative affect and guilt they report feeling. Longitudinal analyses indicate that whereas changes over time in engagement and suppression both predicted reduced secret preoccupation, reductions in suppression (but not engagement) mediated reductions in guilt and negative affect. These results indicate that suppression and engagement are more intimately connected than previously thought. We found no evidence that engagement was ameliorative.

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Secrets, Psychological Health, and the Fear of Discovery

Cited by 17 publications

References 30 publications

A process model of having and keeping secrets.

A process model of having and keeping secrets.

Factors promoting greater preoccupation with a secret

When secrets come to mind: Preoccupation, suppression and engagement

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