ABSTRACT
The reasons people keep secrets and the criteria they use when deciding to reveal secrets offer insights into the goals people bring to their social interactions. Individuals who keep secrets to avoid being negatively evaluated are using secrecy to achieve different objectives than are those who keep secrets to strengthen their relational ties with others. Similarly, people who decide to reveal secrets because the information happens to fit well in a conversation have different goals than do those who reveal secrets only when someone urgently needs to know the information.
