People disclose long-held secrets more readily under anonymous survey conditions.

Evidence

Participation in this study, like all experiments at my university, is voluntary (within the context that students choose to serve in some seven hours of experiments to earn credits). Yet more people show up on the day of the Secret Survey than on any nontest day for the rest of the year. They are moreover extremely cooperative. Most, bless them, answer every question I ask. Some reveal they have cheated on my tests. They report things they say they have never shared with anyone else. They describe things they have done of which they are deeply ashamed. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 752

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to methods for eliciting authoritarian-related admissions in the RWA research program
• QUESTION: What made the Secret Survey context so much more disclosure-favorable than ordinary surveys?