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Hiding Chocolate Stashes or Purchases From a Partner? ‘Guilty’ Purchases May Have Benefits
Hiding chocolate stashes or Amazon purchases from a partner? 'Guilty' purchases may have benefits [iu.edu]:
Do you have a secret stash of chocolates that you keep from your partner, or do you intentionally keep your spouse from knowing about something you bought on Amazon? New research indicates that small but commonly hidden actions such as these may be good for the relationship.
[...] "In our study, we found that 90% of people have recently kept everyday consumer behaviors a secret from a close other -- like a friend or spouse -- even though they also report that they don't think their partner would care if they knew about it," said Kelley Gullo Wight, an assistant professor of marketing at the Kelley School and one of two lead authors on the study. "Even though most of these secret acts are quite ordinary, they can still -- positively -- impact the relationship. The positive impact is an important piece."
Most previous research on secrets has focused on those that hide significant and negative information, such as trauma or extramarital affairs. That research has generally found negative outcomes of secrets.
[...] "One of my favorite findings is that partners often keep the same secrets from each other," said Brick, the study's co-lead author. "In one couple, both partners reported secretly eating meat when they were both supposed to be vegetarian."
Wight said their findings offer companies insights into ways to help consumers use their products in secret. For example, marketers should ask their consumers about when and from whom they use their products so they can better support the secret usage.
"We find that people generally keep consumption a secret from a specific person, not necessarily everyone, which means that encouraging secret consumption shouldn't inhibit other marketing strategies, such as word of mouth," Wight said.
Marketing research papers start with interesting observations on human behavior before revealing their evil underbelly when they point out how to manipulate people using that information.
Journal Reference:
Danielle J. Brick, Kelley Gullo Wight, and Gavan J. Fitzsimons, Secret consumer behaviors in close relationships, J Consumer Psych, 2022. DOI: 10.1002/jcpy.1315 [doi.org]
