It’s Both What You Shared and the Way You Shared It - Secret-Sharing and Interpersonal Evaluations - Thesis (Master of Arts)

Aug 25, 2026

Uploaded by Aurelia

Sharing secrets is common in everyday life, but the processes linking secret-sharing behaviors to how we evaluate others remain underexplored. This thesis studies evaluations of secret-sharers based on secret type (personal vs. secondhand), sharer relationship (close friend vs. acquaintance), and sharing breadth (exclusive vs. nonexclusive). Participants read vignettes and rated trustworthiness, closeness, and social utility. Study 1 shows personal secrets increase trustworthiness and closeness, while secondhand secrets increase social utility. Study 2 reveals interactions: nonexclusive personal secrets reduce closeness, nonexclusive secondhand secrets reduce trustworthiness, and social utility peaks for nonexclusive personal sharing.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages38

Reading Time1 h 36 min

AccessFree to download

Background

Self-Disclosure and Gossip vs. Personal and Secondhand Secrets

Social Implications of Secret-Sharing

Overview of Studies

Study 1: Secret Type & Relationship Level

Method

Results

Discussion

Study 2: Secret Type & Sharing Breadth

Method

Results

Discussion

General Discussion

References

Appendix

UC Santa Barbara UC Santa Barbara Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title It's Both What You Said and the Way You Said It: Secret-Sharing and Interpersonal Evaluations Permalink [https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7569c203](https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7569c203) Author Bedrov, Alisa Publication Date 2021 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation [eScholarship.org](eScholarship.org) Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara It’s Both What You Shared and the Way You Shared It: Secret-Sharing and Interpersonal Evaluations A Thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Psychological & Brain Sciences by Alisa Bedrov Committee in charge: Professor Shelly L. Gable, Chair Professor Nancy Collins Professor Zoe Liberman June 2021 The thesis of Alisa Bedrov is approved. Nancy Collins Zoe Liberman Shelly L. Gable, Committee Chair ABSTRACT It’s Both What You Shared and the Way You Shared It: Secret-Sharing and Interpersonal Evaluations by Alisa Bedrov Sharing secrets is common in everyday life, yet we know relatively little about how secretsharing behaviors influence evaluations ofthose who share secrets. The present studies examined how we evaluate others based on the type of secret (personal vs. secondhand), who shares the secret (close friend vs. acquaintance), and its sharing breadth (exclusive vs. nonexclusive). Participants read brief vignettes about a secret being shared and evaluated the secret-sharer on trustworthiness, closeness with the recipient, and social utility. In Study 1, sharing a personal secret led to higher ratings of trustworthiness and closeness relative to sharing a secondhand secret, regardless of who shared the secret, and sharing a secondhand secret led to higher ratings of social utility. In Study 2, we found a consistent interaction between secret type and sharing breadth. Compared to sharing a secret exclusively with one person, sharing a personal secret nonexclusively decreased closeness ratings, and sharing a secondhand secret nonexclusively decreased trustworthiness ratings. Lastly, social utility was highest for sharing a personal secret nonexclusively. These findings suggest that both the type of secret and how many people it is shared with have important implications for intimacy and trust in close relationships, as well as demonstrating social value. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Background .............................................................................................................. 1 A. Self-Disclosure and Gossip vs. Personal and Secondhand Secrets ...... 1 B. Social Implications of Secret-Sharing................................................... 2 1. Trustworthiness................................................................................ 3 2. Closeness ......................................................................................... 4 3. Social Utility .................................................................................... 5 C. Overview of Studies .............................................................................. 6 II. Study 1: Secret Type & Relationship Level............................................................ 7 A. Method .................................................................................................. 7 B. Results ................................................................................................... 9 C. Discussion ........................................................................................... 10 III. Study 2: Secret Type & Sharing Breadth ............................................................ 11 A. Method ................................................................................................ 11 B. Results ..........................................................................

FAQs

How do participants evaluate secret-sharers in the study?

Participants read brief vignettes and rate the secret-sharer on trustworthiness, closeness with the recipient, and social utility.

What does Study 1 find about personal versus secondhand secrets?

Sharing a personal secret leads to higher trustworthiness and closeness than sharing a secondhand secret, while sharing a secondhand secret leads to higher social utility.

How does sharing breadth (exclusive vs. nonexclusive) change evaluation outcomes?

Study 2 finds interactions between secret type and sharing breadth: nonexclusive personal sharing decreases closeness ratings, and nonexclusive secondhand sharing decreases trustworthiness ratings; social utility is highest for nonexclusive personal sharing.

Aug 25, 2026

Uploaded by Aurelia