Revealing and Not Revealing the Status of Romantic Relationships to Social Networks

Abstract

The researchers conducted retrospective interviews with 101 university-level participants to determine what they did to make their developing romantic relationship known to social network members and what they did to keep their relationship from becoming known. The most frequent topic of both revelation and concealment was information on the relationship's status and progress. Strategic disclosure and manipulation of co-presence signals were the most frequent ways in which information was managed. The most frequent reasons for revelation were felt obligation to reveal based on the relationship with the target, the desire for emotional expression and the desire for psychological support from the target. The most frequent reason to withhold information was the anticipation of a negative reaction from the target. Parents were more likely than others in the respondent's network to be the target of concealment acts, whereas close friends of the respondent were less likely than others to have information with-held. Parties in closer relationships were more likely than those in less close relationships to perform jointly enacted acts and acts directed toward members of the partner's network or the joint network.