Secrecy and Identity: Consequences for Well-being and Social Disconnection

Despite the increasing academic attention to secrecy in the field of psychology as a common human experience, and the distinction between different types of secrets, research is still needed to understand the consequences of secrecy and the psychological mechanisms underlying its association with identity. In particular, little is known about whether identity-related secrets differ from behaviour-related secrets in their psychological and the relational consequences. This thesis aims to address this important theoretical gap by examining the downstream consequences of secrecy in the identity domain, well-being and social disconnection by exploring psychological mechanisms that help explain these differences. In this thesis, I first review the existing literature on secrecy and identity as well as its consequences. Then, I report the studies I carried out, which employed quantitative methods to examine the intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of secrecy. Chapter 2 reports a pilot study attempting to categorise identity-related and behaviour-related secrets using an existing secrecy questionnaire, followed by an experimental study manipulating the type of secret to examine differences in mind-wandering, inauthenticity, well-being, and disconnection. Chapter 3 extends this work by investigating emotions associated with secrecy and varying the relational context of secrecy. Chapter 4 further builds on these findings by exploring the role of disclosure burden. Across studies, I found that identity-related secrets were associated with greater social disconnection compared to behaviour-related secrets. Mediation analyses indicated that these differences were partly explained by mind-wandering, inauthenticity, fear, and disclosure burden. Overall, the findings demonstrate that secrecy is not a uniform experience and that identity-related secrets represent a particularly burdensome form of secrecy, even in the absence of active concealment. These findings have implications for theory, therapeutic practice, and efforts promote social environments that allow greater authenticity and reduce the need for identity concealment.<p></p>

Author dc:creator

• Wafa Alsharikh (21039584)

• Secrecy
• Identity
• Social Disconnection
• Well-being

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved
• Open Access after 2028-01-14

Identifier

10779/exe.32983010.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/32983010