Truth or Punishment: Secrecy and Punishing the Self

Abstract

We live in a world that values justice; when a crime is committed, just punishment is expected to follow. Keeping one's misdeed secret therefore appears to be a strategic way to avoid (just) consequences. Yet, people may engage in self-punishment to right their own wrongs to balance their personal sense of justice. Thus, those who seek an escape from justice by keeping secrets may in fact end up serving that same justice on themselves (through self-punishment). Six studies demonstrate that thinking about secret (vs. confessed) misdeeds leads to increased self-punishment (increased denial of pleasure and seeking of pain). These effects were mediated by the feeling one deserved to be punished, moderated by the significance of the secret, and were observed for both self-reported and behavioral measures of self-punishment.

Shared Adversity Increases Team Creativity Through Fostering Supportive Interaction

“…In the current study, we drew on the experience of physical pain as an example of an adverse experience. This is in-line with our other work on the nature and downstream effects of physical pain (Bastian et al, 2011 , 2013 , 2014b ) which we have also extended both empirically and theoretically to a broader range of adverse and unpleasant experiences (Bastian et al, 2014c ; Harmon-Jones et al, 2017 ; Slepian and Bastian, 2017 ; Bastian, 2018 ). To this end, we not only examined whether people reported pain in response to our manipulation, but also a broad range of negative responses.…”

To Whom Do We Confide Our Secrets?

“…If people experience an episode or have a personal detail that is shameful or stigmatizing, secrecy is a strategy one might use to avoid potential harm to one’s reputation. Keeping secrets is thus a self-protection strategy to prevent potential harm, but it can have the inadvertent cost of perpetuating one’s own suffering (Kelly & McKillop, 1996; Slepian & Bastian, 2017). Compassion, however, helps alleviate others’ suffering.…”

“…Our work adds to the literature on assertiveness by showing that someone who is approach-oriented and who will take action even in the face of obstacles is someone whom people are more likely to confide in. When people have a secret, it is often something that is difficult and challenging to cope with (Slepian & Bastian, 2017; Slepian et al, 2017). Just as we find that people are likely to confide in someone who is compassionate (and thus motivated to help), we find that people are likely to confide in someone who is assertive (and thus is more likely to help when faced with a call to arms).…”

“…People often keep secrets to avoid others’ disapproval or rejection (Slepian & Bastian, 2017). Yet, secrecy can prove to be challenging and burdensome (Critcher & Ferguson, 2014; Lane & Wegner, 1995; Slepian, Camp, & Masicampo, 2015; Slepian et al, 2017; Slepian, Masicampo, & Galinsky, 2016).…”

Holding Secrets While Living With Life-Threatening Illness: Normalizing Patients’ Decisions to Reveal or Conceal

“…We found that the way secrets act to protect the secret-keeper was not surprising. There are well-established narratives about how keeping secrets protects people from social rejection and disapproval; they protect reputations as shown in Christopher’s story, and they protect close relationships as illustrated above (Slepian & Bastian, 2017; Slepian & Kirby, 2018). While reading Connor’s story may not offer much that is new about protection, reading it from a different perspective (as an overlapping continuum) offered us a way to know this differently (Frank, 2010).…”