1 in 3 people cheat. Here’s what to do if you’re the 1 | Michael Slepian

33% of people cheat, and 77% of people want to know about their partner’s infidelity. Would you tell your partner? Michael Slepian, an expert on secrecy, explains how.

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About one-third of people have committed infidelity at some point in their lives. If you're one of them, should you confess it to your romantic partner?

One way to answer the question is to consider whether you would want to know if your partner had cheated on you: Surveys show that 77% of people would want to know, but that still leaves about a quarter of us who'd prefer ignorance. It's also worth questioning your own motives: Maybe you only want to get the secret off your chest to make yourself feel better.

It's a difficult dilemma with no one-size-fits-all solution. But fortunately, as psychologist Michael Slepian explained to Big Think, recent research has been revealing insights on the nature of secrets, what happens when we harbor them, and how and when we should consider getting them off our chest.

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/great-question/confess-to-cheating/

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About Michael Slepian:
Michael Slepian is the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Associate Professor of Leadership and Ethics at Columbia Business School. He previously was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, and received his Ph.D. from Tufts University. He is an elected fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, has received the Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science, and received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

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Read more of our stories on secret keeping:
How many secrets are you holding from these 38 categories?
► https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/secret-life-of-secrets/
Why it’s time to confess your darkest secrets
► https://bigthink.com/thinking/confess-your-secrets/
Creative cheating: the link between creativity and dishonesty
► https://bigthink.com/articles/creative-cheating-the-link-between-creativity-and-dishonesty/


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