The art of making friends : sharing a secret as a means to building trust

Abstract

Many people engage in secret keeping and disclosure for a myriad of reasons. One such reason for secret disclosure is that it can be used as a strategy to enhance the quality of the relationship with a confidant and to engender greater feelings of interpersonal trust. This study investigated the proximal effect of secret disclosure on particularized trust using a confederate paradigm. It was hypothesized that secret disclosure with participants (“secret sharing” condition) led them to have the highest particularized trust for the confederate followed by participants who only interacted with the confederate (“no secret” condition) and those who did not engage in interaction at all (control condition; Hypothesis 1). It was also hypothesized that generalized trust would moderate the development of particularized trust (Hypothesis 2). Lastly, it was hypothesized that gender effects would be observed either across all conditions or only in the “secret sharing” condition (Hypothesis 3a & b). Analyses

showed that hypothesis 1 was generally supported but hypothesis 2, 3a and 3b were not supported. The results, limitations and future directions were subsequently discussed. Overall, this study demonstrates that secret disclosure is associated with higher particularized trust above and beyond simply engaging in normal interaction with a new friend.