The fear of judgment can cause people to keep negative information about themselves from work colleagues. But oftentimes, those colleagues respond more positively to shared secrets than the discloser expects, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
The report was co-authored by Amit Kumar, PhD, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business; Michael Kardas, PhD, an assistant professor of management at the Stillwater-based Oklahoma State University; and Nicholas Epley, PhD, the John Templeton Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and director of the Roman Family Center for Decision Research at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.
The researchers conducted 12 experiments regarding secret-telling in the workplace, concluding that humans' fears of self-disclosure are "overblown," according to a Jan. 4 news release from UT Austin.
"When we're thinking about conveying negative information about ourselves, we're focused on the content of the message," Dr. Kumar said. "But the recipients are thinking about the positive traits required to reveal this secret, such as trust, honesty, and vulnerability."
Here are three more insights from the experiments, according to Dr. Kumar:
- When asked to reveal a negative secret to another person, the secret-teller consistently expected worse judgment than they actually received. This remained true regardless of who was on the receiving end of the secret — a stranger or a close family member — and what the secret was — whether it was that they could not ride a bike or that they had been unfaithful to a partner.
- People feared that if they did not conceal their secrets, others would find them untrustworthy. On the contrary, people who revealed secrets were rated by others as more honest and more trustworthy.
- Only 56% of participants challenged to disclose that they had told a lie did so. However, in a group told that they would probably not be judged harshly for telling a lie, 92% chose to disclose. Shifting people's expectations of judgment to be more in line with reality might make them more transparent.
These lessons could be applied in the business setting, according to Dr. Kumar.
"Any comprehensive understanding of how to navigate the workplace includes a better understanding of how people think, feel, and behave," Dr. Kumar said. "When workplace transgressions arise, people could be wise to consider that they also reveal warmth, trust, and honesty when they are open and transparent about revealing negative information."