Seven studies test and find evidence for a relationship between secrecy and power. People who received secret information from another person felt more powerful than people who did not, both in terms of secrets they recalled from life (Studies 1, 2, and 4) as well as secrets from strangers (Studies 3 and 5). The effect of receiving secret information on experiencing increased power is not driven by changes in affect, nor is it contingent on the secret offering any instrumental advantage to the self. We test potential psychological mechanisms across three studies, specifically, exclusivity of the secret (Study 2), whether receiving a secret increases people's sense of felt reliance (Study 3), and whether receiving a secret makes people feel more trusted (Study 4). We find the effect is not dependent on the exclusivity of the secret, but that both a sense of reliance and feeling trusted drive the relationship between receiving a secret and feeling powerful. We also find that receiving a secret not only increases power, but also has downstream consequences in terms of increasing illusory control over the secret-giver and over others (Study 5). Studies 6 and 7 test and show that power reduces people's willingness to share secret information. People induced to feel powerful were less likely to share secrets about an organization with others (Study 6) and were more likely to approve of non-compete agreements in employment contracts (Study 7).

七项研究测试并找到了保密与权力之间关系的证据。从他人那里获得秘密信息的人感觉比没有获得秘密信息的人更强大，无论是从他们从生活中回忆的秘密（研究 1、2 和 4）还是从陌生人那里获得的秘密（研究 3 和 5）。接受秘密信息对体验增强力量的影响不是由情感变化驱动的，也不取决于秘密为自己提供任何工具性优势。我们在三项研究中测试了潜在的心理机制，特别是秘密的排他性（研究 2），接受秘密是否会增加人们的依赖感（研究 3），以及接受秘密是否会让人们感到更信任（研究 4）。我们发现这种效果并不取决于秘密的排他性，而是依赖感和被信任感共同推动了接受秘密和感觉强大之间的关系。我们还发现，接受秘密不仅会增加权力，还会在增加对秘密提供者和其他人的虚幻控制方面产生下游后果（研究 5）。研究 6 和 7 测试并表明权力会降低人们分享秘密信息的意愿。被诱导感到强大的人不太可能与他人分享有关组织的秘密（研究 6），并且更有可能批准雇佣合同中的竞业禁止协议（研究 7）。