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Old 04-21-2008, 03:12 PM   #11 (permalink)
DayInTheLife
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Join Date: Nov 2007
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Ok, here is the deal with secrets:

People like secrets because it gives them an acute sense of superiority. When you know something interesting, you feel superior in some small way to anybody who doesn't know it.

But you can't 'cash in' that superiority unless you prove to somebody else that you know something they don't. This is why people spill the beans. It is very gratifying for the ego.

Have you ever learned something very interesting and you are hoping that the other person hasn't heard it yet when you tell them? If your goal is just to convey this info, it should not matter if they know already. But you hope they don't know because it is gratifying to reveal that you know something they don't.

The gratification is particularly intense when the information is more exclusive or dramatic, such as details about an affair, or a huge breaking news story.

Sometimes people tell you a secret and then say "I shouldn't even be telling you this, so don't tell anyone else." They want to be gratified by revealing the secret to someone, but they hope you don't tell anyone because they have nothing to gain by that.
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