Journal article
Regulating Emotions About Secrets
V Bianchi, KH Greenaway, ML Slepian, EK Kalokerinos
Emotion | AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC | Published : 2024
DOI: 10.1037/emo0001357
Open access
Abstract
Secrecy is common and psychologically costly. Research shows that secrets have high emotional stakes, but no research has directly tested how people regulate their emotions about secrets. To fill this gap, we conducted an experimental study (Study 1), then moved to studying secrecy “in the wild” to capture regulatory processes as they unfold in everyday life (Studies 2 and 3). In Study 1 (N = 498), people reported using different strategies to regulate emotions about secrets compared to matched nonsecrets. In two daily diary studies (NStudy 2 = 174, 1,059 surveys; NStudy 3 = 240, 2,764 surveys), participants reported engaging in acceptance, distraction, and expressive suppression most—and so..
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Grants
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project awarded to Katharine H. Greenaway, Michael L. Slepian, and Elise K. Kalokerinos (DP190103072) and an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship awarded to Katharine H. Greenaway (FT190100300). The Open Science Framework link is available at https://osf.io/q9fr2/. Open Access funding provided by University of Melbourne: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). This license permits copying and redistributing the work in any medium or format, as well as adapting the material for any purpose, even commercially.