Secrets and disclosures: how young children handle secrets

The authors examined the influence of content and verbal cues on young children's understanding of secret information and of its disclosure. Participants were 209 5- and 6-year-old children in an experiment where a puppet, named Zinc, was the protagonist. Children were asked to whom Zinc would disclose a list of pieces of information, some of which are considered secrets. Children could choose between Zinc's friend, a nonfriend, both friend and nonfriend, or nobody. Participants were divided in 2 experiment groups: In the first group a prior verbal cue was given to the participants that some information might be secret, whereas in the second group no prior cue was presented. Results showed that young children, similar to older individuals, differentiated between secrets and nonsecrets partly on the basis of content, and chose to withhold secrets more than nonsecrets or to share secrets more with friends than with nonfriends, following the restrictive self-disclosure pattern. In contrast, young children did not withhold nonsecret information, but they shared it with friends and nonfriends. However, when given verbal cues regarding potential secrecy of the information, young children chose more restrictive disclosure patterns for all types of content.