How to stop your secrets from hurting your mental health | Michael Slepian

Columbia professor Michael Slepian collected thousands of secrets. They all had 3 things in common.

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How many secrets are you holding right now? If the answer is around 13, you're about average, according to research on the nature of secrets.

Secrets aren't all bad. Some are rather trivial. But sometimes, keeping secrets can weigh us down and cause psychological distress.

Michael Slepian, an associate professor at Columbia Business School, has spent years studying the nature of secrets, why we hold them, and which kinds of secrets people tend to deem the most serious.

As Slepian explains in this Big Think video, his research has revealed that secrets can generally be sorted into three domains. Gaining a better understanding of your secrets can help you find a better way forward.

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/explain-it-like-im-smart/three-dimensions-of-secrets/


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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 secrets:
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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