Psychology of Secrecy

How do secrets affect the mind? One of the tactics most people use to keep a secret is to try not to think about it—particularly in the presence of those from whom the secret must be kept. The last thing we want to do, after all, is to let the secret somehow into our words or gestures, so we try to put it out of mind whenever it might be a problem. This thought suppression strategy can backfire, however, making us think of the secret again and again. Our seeming obsession with the secret can then take on a life of its own as we become preoccupied with the secret and come to exaggerate its importance in our minds. Lane and Wegner (1995) revealed these consequences of secrecy for thinking, and Wegner, Lane, and Dimitri (1994) found similar consequences for emotion. People who keep love affairs secret become obsessed with them and become more attracted to their partners than they might if their relationships were public. In the Victorian era, secrets were even identified as a source of madness. Moritz Benedikt (1879) described the "pathogenic secret" as a thought that becomes the obsessive and frightening focus of a person's whole mind and life simply because of its secrecy.

Publications

  • Smart, L., & Wegner, D. M. (2000). The hidden costs of hidden stigma. In T. F. Heatherton, R. E. Kleck, M. R. Hebl, & J. G. Hull (Eds.), The social psychology of stigma (pp. 220-242). New York: Guilford Press.
  • Smart, L., & Wegner, D. M. (1999). Covering up what can't be seen: Concealable stigmas and mental control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 474-486.
  • Wegner, D. M., & Smart, L. (1997). Deep cognitive activation: A new approach to the unconscious. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65, 984-995.
  • Wegner, D. M. (1997). When the antidote is the poison: Ironic mental control processes. Psychological Science, 8, 148-150.
  • Wegner, D. M. (1997). Why the mind wanders. In J. D. Cohen & J. W. Schooler (Eds.), Scientific approaches to consciousness (pp. 295-315). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • Erber, R., Wegner, D. M., & Thierrault, N. (1996). On being cool and collected: Mood regulation in anticipation of social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 757-766.
  • Wegner, D. M., & Wenzlaff, R. M. (1996). Mental control. In E. T. Higgins & A. Kruglanski (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic mechanisms and processes (pp. 466-492). New York: Guilford.
  • Gold, D. B., & Wegner, D. M. (1995). The origins of ruminative thought: Trauma, incompleteness, nondisclosure, and suppression. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25, 1245-1261.
  • Lane, J. D., & Wegner, D. M. (1995). The cognitive consequences of secrecy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 237-253.
  • Wegner, D. M., & Gold, D. B. (1995). Fanning old flames: Emotional and cognitive effects of suppressing thoughts of a past relationship. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 782-792.
  • Wegner, D. M., & Lane, J. D. (1995). From secrecy to psychopathology. In J. W. Pennebaker (Ed.), Emotion, disclosure, and health (pp. 25-46). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
  • Lane, J. D., & Wegner, D. M. (1994). Secret relationships: The back alley to love. In R. Erber & R. Gilmour (Eds.), Theoretical frameworks for personal relationships (pp. 67-85). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • Wegner, D. M., Lane, J. D., & Dimitri, S. (1994). The allure of secret relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 287-300.
  • Wegner, D. M., & Erber, R. E. (1993). Social foundations of mental control. In D. M. Wegner & J. W. Pennebaker (Eds.), Handbook of mental control (pp. 36-56). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  • Wegner, D. M., & Pennebaker, J. W. (1993). Changing our minds: An introduction to mental control. In D. M. Wegner & J. W. Pennebaker (Eds.), Handbook of mental control (pp. 1-12). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  • Wegner, D. M., & Pennebaker, J. W. (Eds.) (1993). Handbook of mental control. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  • Wegner, D. M. (1992). You can't always think what you want: Problems in the suppression of unwanted thoughts. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, (Vol. 25, pp. 193-225). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
  • Wegner, D. M. (1989). White bears and other unwanted thoughts: Suppression, obsession, and the psychology of mental control. New York: Viking. German translation by Ernst Kabel Verlag, 1992. 1994 Edition, New York: Guilford Press.
  • Wegner, D. M., Shortt, J. W., Blake, A. W., & Page, M. S. (1990). The suppression of exciting thoughts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 409-418.
  • Wegner, D. M., & Schneider, D. J. (1989). Mental control: The war of the ghosts in the machine. In J. Uleman & J. Bargh (Eds.), Unintended thought (pp. 287-305). New York: Guilford Press. Reprinted in R. P. Honeck (Ed.) (1995). Introductory Readings for Cognitive Psychology, Third Edition. Guilford, CT: Dushkin.
  • Wegner, D. M., Coulton, G., & Wenzlaff, R. (1985). The transparency of denial: Briefing in the debriefing paradigm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 382-391.