%0 Journal Article
%T Confiding Secrets and Well
%A Edythe Moulton-Tetlock
%A Michael L. Slepian
%J Social Psychological and Personality Science
%@ 1948-5514
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1948550618765069
%X How does confiding secrets relate to well-being? The current work presents the first empirical examination of mechanisms by which confiding diverse real-world secrets to known others predicts well-being. We examined over 800 participants with more than 10,000 secrets in total, finding that confiding a secret does not predict reduced instances of concealment. Rather, confiding a secret predicts higher well-being through perceived coping efficacy. Correlational and experimental studies find that through confiding a secret, people feel they obtain social support and are more capable in coping with the secret. Additionally, through perceived coping efficacy, confiding a secret predicts less frequent mind wandering to the secret. Confiding predicts higher well-being through changing the way and how often people think about their secret
%K secrecy
%K mind wandering
%K concealment
%K well-being
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1948550618765069