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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
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Secret Transmission: A Relative Intimacy Hypothesis

Nancy A. Yovetich

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Stephen M. Drigotas

Southern Methodist University

The transmission of another’s secret is likened to self-disclosure, and further predictions are set forth based on a relative intimacy hypothesis. This hypothesis maintains that individuals will be more likely to transmit private information gathered from a lower-level intimate to a higher-level intimate (upward transmission) rather than from a higher-level intimate to a lower-level intimate (downward transmission). This pattern of behavior also is predicted to be normatively enforced. Results of three studies support these assertions. Participants were more likely to communicate upward rather than downward in both imagined (Study 1) and actual (Study 2) instances of secret transmission. In addition, individuals in Study 3 evaluated a secret relayer more negatively when he or she passed the secret from a higher-level intimate to a lower-level intimate.

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 25, No. 9, 1135-1146 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/01461672992512007
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