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.
BastianB.JettenJ.FasoliF. (2011). Cleansing the soul by hurting the flesh. Psychological Science, 22, 334-335.
2.
BatesD.MaechlerM.BolkerB.WalkerS. (2015). lme4: Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using Eigen and S4 (Version 1.1–7) [Computer software]. Retrieved from http://cran.r-project.org/package!lme4
3.
BuhrmesterM.KwangT.GoslingS. D. (2011). Amazon’s Mechanical Turk: A new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality, data?Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 3-5.
4.
CarlsmithK. M.DarleyJ. M.RobinsonP. H. (2002). Why do we punish? Deterrence and just deserts as motives for punishment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 284-299.
5.
CarlsmithK. M.WilsonT. D.GilbertD. T. (2008). The paradoxical consequences of revenge. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1316-1324.
6.
ColeS. W.KemenyM. E.TaylorS. E.VisscherB. R. (1996). Elevated physical health risk among gay men who conceal their homosexual identity. Health Psychology, 15, 243-251.
7.
CritcherC. R.FergusonM. J. (2014). The cost of keeping it hidden: Decomposing concealment reveals what makes it depleting. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 721-735.
8.
DilB.DarwallS. (2014). Moral psychology as accountability. In D’ArmsJ.JacobsonD. (Eds.), Moral psychology and human agency: Philosophical essays on the science of ethics (pp. 40-83). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
9.
EffronD. A.MillerD. T. (2015). Do as I say, not as I’ve done: Suffering for a misdeed reduces the hypocrisy of advising others against it. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 131, 16-32.
10.
FrijnsT.FinkenauerC.KeijsersL. (2013). Shared secrets versus secrets kept private are linked to better adolescent adjustment. Journal of Adolescence, 36, 55-64.
11.
FritzC. O.MorrisP. E.RichlerJ. J. (2012). Effect size estimates: Current use, calculations, and interpretation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141, 2-18.
12.
FunkF.McGeerV.GollwitzerM. (2014). Get the message: Punishment is satisfying if the transgressor responds to its communicative intent. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40, 986-997.
13.
GlucklichA. (2001). Sacred pain: Hurting the body for the sake of the soul. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
14.
GollwitzerM.BushmanB. J. (2012). Do victims of injustice punish to improve their mood?Social Psychological & Personality Science, 3, 572-580.
15.
GoslingS. D.SandyC. J.JohnO. P.PotterJ. (2010). Wired but not WEIRD: The promise of the Internet in reaching more diverse samples. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 94-95.
16.
GrayK.WegnerD. M. (2010). Torture and judgments of guilt. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 233-235.
17.
GrayK.WegnerD. M. (2011). To escape blame, don’t be a hero—Be a victim. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 516-519.
18.
HayesA. F. (2009). Beyond Baron and Kenny: Statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium. Communication Monographs, 76, 408-420.
19.
HenrichJ.HeineS. J.NorenzayanA. (2010). The weirdest people in the world?Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 61-83.
20.
HuX.BergströmZ. M.GagnepainP.AndersonM. C. (2017). Suppressing unwanted memories reduces their unintended influences. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26, 197-206.
21.
InbarY.PizarroD. A.GilovichT.ArielyD. (2013). Moral masochism: On the connection between guilt and self-punishment. Emotion, 13, 14-18.
22.
KellerL.OswaldM.StuckiI.GollwitzerM. (2010). A closer look at an eye for an eye: Laypersons’ punishment decisions are primarily driven by retributive motives. Social Justice Research, 23, 99-116.
23.
KellyA. E.KahnJ. H. (1994). Effects of suppression of personal intrusive thoughts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 998-1006.
24.
KellyA. E.McKillopK. J. (1996). Consequences of revealing personal secrets. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 450-465.
25.
KellyA. E.KlusasJ. A.von WeissR. T.KennyC. (2001). What is it about revealing secrets that is beneficial?Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 651-665.
26.
KellyA. E.YipJ. J. (2006). Is keeping a secret or being a secretive person linked to psychological symptoms?Journal of Personality, 74, 1349-1369.
27.
KlingerE. (2013). Goal Commitments and the content of thoughts and dreams: Basic principles. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 415.
28.
KuznetsovaA.BrockhoffP. B.ChristensenR. H. B. (2013). lmerTest: Tests in Linear Mixed Effects Models (Version 2.0 –11) [Software]. Retrieved from http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/lmerTest/
29.
LaneJ. D.WegnerD. M. (1995). The cognitive consequences of secrecy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 237-253.
30.
LarsonD. G.ChastainR. L. (1990). Self-concealment: Conceptualization, measurement, and health implications. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 439-455.
31.
LarsonD. G.ChastainR. L.HoytW. T.AyzenbergR. (2015). Self-Concealment: Integrative review and working model. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 34, 705-729.
32.
LehmillerJ. J. (2009). Secret romantic relationships: Consequences for personal and relational well-being. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 1452-1466.
33.
LernerM. J. (1980). The belief in a just world: A fundamental delusion. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
34.
MaasJ.WismeijerA. A. J.van AssenM. A. L. M.AquariusA. E. A. M. (2012). Is it bad to have secrets? Cognitive preoccupation as a toxic element of secrecy. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 12, 23-37.
35.
MacKinnonD. P.FairchildA. J.FritzM. S. (2007). Mediation analysis. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 593-614.
36.
MasonM. F.BarM.MacraeC. N. (2007). Exploring the past and impending future in the here and now: Mind-wandering in the default state. Cognitive Sciences, 3, 143-162.
37.
MasonM. F.ReinholtzN. (2015). Avenues down which a selfreminding mind can wander. Motivation Science, 1, 1-21.
38.
MasonW.SuriS. (2011). Conducting behavioral research on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Behavioral Research Methods, 44, 1-23.
39.
MolenmakerW. E.de KwaadstenietE. W.van DijkE. (2016). The impact of personal responsibility on the (un)willingness to punish non-cooperation and reward cooperation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 134, 1-15.
40.
NelissenR. M. A. (2012). Guilt-induced self-punishment as a sign of remorse. Social Psychological & Personality Science, 3, 139-144.
41.
NelissenR. M. A.ZeelenbergM. (2009). When guilt evokes self-punishment: Evidence for the existence of a Dobby Effect. Emotion, 9, 118-122.
PaolacciG.ChandlerJ. (2014). Inside the Turk: Understanding Mechanical Turk as a participant pool. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23, 184-188.
44.
PaolacciG.ChandlerJ.IpeirotisP. G. (2010). Running experiments on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Judgment and Decision Making, 5, 411-419.
45.
PennebakerJ. W. (1997). Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. Psychological Science, 8, 162-166.
46.
QuinnD. M.ChaudoirS. R. (2009). Living with a concealable stigmatized identity: The impact of anticipated stigma, centrality, salience, and cultural stigma on psychological distress and health. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 634-651.
47.
QuinnD. M.WilliamsM. K.QuintanaF.GaskinsJ. L.OverstreetN. M.PishoriA.… ChaudoirS. R. (2014). Examining effects of anticipated stigma, centrality, salience, internalization, and outness on psychological distress for people with concealable stigmatized identities. PLoS ONE, 9(5): e96977.
48.
RosenthalR. (1991). Meta-analytic procedures for social research. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
49.
RothermundK. (2003). Automatic vigilance for task-related information: Perseverance after failure and inhibition after success. Memory & Cognition, 31, 343-352.
50.
SagarinB. J.AmblerJ. K.LeeE. M. (2014). An ethical approach to peeking at data. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9, 293-304.
51.
SkitkaL. J.WisneskiD. C. (2012). Justice theory and research: A social functionalist perspective. In WeinerI. B.TennenH. A.SulsJ. M. (Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Personality and social psychology (2nd ed., pp. 407-428). New York, NY: Wiley.
52.
SlepianM. L.CampN. P.MasicampoE. J. (2015). Exploring the secrecy burden: Secrets, preoccupation, and perceptual judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 144, e31-e42.
53.
SlepianM. L.ChunJ. S.MasonM. F. (2017). The experience of secrecy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication, May 8, 2017. doi:10.1037/pspa0000085
54.
SlepianM. L.MasicampoE. J.AmbadyN. (2014). Relieving the burdens of secrecy: Revealing secrets influences judgments of hill slant and distance. Social Psychological & Personality Science, 5, 293-300.
55.
SlepianM. L.MasicampoE. J.GalinskyA. D. (2016). The hidden effects of recalling secrets: Assimilation, contrast, and the burdens of secrecy. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145, e27-e48.
56.
SongX.WangX. (2012). Mind wandering in Chinese daily lives—An experience sampling study. PLoS ONE, 7, e44423.
57.
VangelistiA. L. (1994). Family secrets: Forms, functions and correlates. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 11, 113-135.
58.
WenzelM.OkimotoT. G.FeatherN. T.PlatowM. J. (2008). Retributive and restorative justice. Law and Human Behavior, 32, 375-389.
59.
ZeigarnikB. (1927). Das behalten erledigter und unerledigter handlungen [The retention of completed and uncompleted activities]. Psychologische Forschung, 9, 1-85.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
