What Does Secrecy Do To You, Columbia Asks?
Columbia Business School recently looked into new research co-authored by assistant professor of management Michael Slepian that “uncovers the physical and psychological consequences” of secrecy and the “effects that withholding information in social interactions have on secret keepers.”
Entitled “The Experience of Secrecy,” the study, which uncovered the 38 most common secrets from a pool of over 13,000, finds people who harbor secrets “frequently think about them even in irrelevant situations, such as shopping at the grocery store.”
Slepian explains this is the case because secrets as benign as a white lie and as comparatively severe as an extramarital affair “serve as a reminder that individuals are masking part of themselves, which leads them to feel inauthentic.” The study finds that it’s more common for people to reflect on their secret when they aren’t among peers.
Co-author and associate professor of management Malia Mason elaborates: “Secrets exert a gravitational pull on our attention, and it’s the cyclical revisiting of our mistakes that explains the harmful effects that secrets can have on our well-being and relationship satisfaction.”
Mason explains further, “Along with a diminished sense of well-being and physical health consequences, keeping secrets can also shift a person’s focus from the task at hand to their secrets, which clearly can have a detrimental effect on task performance.”
Visit keepingsecrets.orghttp://keepingsecrets.org/ to learn more.
About the Author
Jonathan Pfeffer
Jonathan Pfeffer joined the Clear Admit and MetroMBA teams in 2015 after spending several years as an arts/culture writer, editor, and radio producer. In addition to his role as contributing writer at MetroMBA and contributing editor at Clear Admit, he is co-founder and lead producer of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. He holds a BA in Film/Video, Ethnomusicology, and Media Studies from Oberlin College.
