Donate for your Secrets: Relationship between Secrecy, Guilt and Donation Behavior.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Behavioral Economics
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Secrecy research often focuses on negative outcomes.
• Limited understanding of the constructive potential of secrecy.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate the mediating role of felt guilt in the secrecy-donation relationship.
• Examine the moderating effect of moral identity on this relationship.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments with 532 adult participants.
• Measured secrecy, felt guilt, donation behavior, and moral identity.

Main Results:

• Felt guilt significantly mediated the link between secrecy and donation behavior.
• The mediation effect was stronger for individuals with higher moral identity.
• Higher moral identity individuals reported greater guilt and donated more after experiencing secrecy.

Conclusions:

• Secrecy can have constructive consequences, particularly in promoting prosocial behaviors like donations.
• Moral identity amplifies the guilt-donation pathway initiated by secrecy.
• Findings offer novel insights for donation appeals by leveraging the psychological impact of secrecy.