Safer Secrets: An Investigation into Participants’ Perceptions of Confidentiality, Importance, Risk of Disclosure, and Secret Depth on Survey Questionnaires

• In Event: Shared Experiences: Multiple Perspectives of Interpersonal Communication

Abstract

Most studies of secrets have utilized a single-survey methodology to assist participants in recalling the secrets they report. Yet a particular type of survey methodology may influence the characteristics of reported secrets. Participants reported a secret in one of three conditions. Results suggested that writing the secret on a survey can result in the sharing of “safer” secrets—those that participants are more comfortable sharing on a survey because they are lower risk to disclose.

Author

• Angela Niedermyer, University of Texas, Austin