Can you keep a secret? ⏲️ 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute

English from BBC

Learning English. I'm Neil. And I'm Beth.

Can you keep a secret,

Neil or are you

someone who spills the beans?

That's an idiom meaning to tell people a secret.

I'm pretty good at keeping secrets,

Beth, unless it is giving away the ending of a movie.

I'm always doing that!

Whether you find it hard to keep secrets or take them with you to the grave,

keeping secrets is often considered something bad.

But what if some secrets could actually make your life better?

Now, psychological studies are uncovering a more positive side

to secrets, suggesting

that keeping good news to yourself can actually make you feel more alive,

especially if you plan to share your secret with someone later.

In this programme, we will be discussing the advantages of keeping secrets.

And as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

But first, I have a question for you, Neil.

One very famous secret is the recipe for

the world's favourite soft drink, Coca Cola. While travelling in Indonesia,

BBC TV presenter,

Joanna Lumley, believes she discovered the unknown secret ingredient.

So, is Coca Cola's secret spice:

A) cinnamon, B) nutmeg or C) ginger?

Well, I don't know.

So I'm going to guess it's nutmeg.

OK. I'll reveal the secret at the end of the programme. This year,

a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

introduced a new term to the discussion –

positive secrets. Here,

the study's author, Dr Michael Slepian

of Columbia University, discusses positive secrets with BBC

World Service programme, Newsday.

Yeah, so, what's interesting about the idea of positive secrets

is, you know,

there's a set of them where the plan is to never

reveal them… you know, we might say a guilty pleasure is something we enjoy

but don't want to tell other people about. And then there's other secrets

that the whole point of keeping them secret is to reveal

them, you know, the surprising marriage proposal,

the pregnancy announcement, unwrapping a gift

that you've wrapped...

Dr Slepian distinguishes between

positive and negative secrets.

Negative secrets hurt people and damage relationships.

They're like a guilty pleasure,

an activity you really enjoy doing,

but which also gives you a feeling of guilt or shame for doing it.

Positive secrets,

on the other hand, include things like marriage proposals –

the act of asking someone to marry you. Revealing

positive secrets lets us share and celebrate those things with others.

In fact, the whole point of positive secrets is to reveal them. Here

the phrase 'the whole point' is used to mean the most important reason

or purpose for something. Because positive secrets

give us the feeling we are in control of our emotions, they energise us.

However, Dr Slepian's research comes from the United States.

Would the results be the same

In other cultures and countries?

Here’s Dr Slepian again,

talking with BBC

World Service programme, Newsday:

In some cultures,

it is said that if it's good news, especially around pregnancy,

don't share it till the time, you know, it's safe, because they feel that

it may lead to some negative vibes... evil eye

as many people call it. Is that also a part

of what you found why people keep secrets?

Are there any kind of cultural influences when they keep the good

secrets and the positive secrets?

Yeah, it's interesting you bring this example

example 'cause we're studying it right now.

We have this intuition that pregnancy and secrets

around pregnancy in earlier

periods that

it looks more like a burdensome secret,

and when it’s later and, you know, people feel comfortable discussing it more

like positive secrets. In some cultures secrets about

pregnancy are related to the evil eye, a superstition in which

someone causes injury or bad luck through a look.

It could be bad luck to reveal a pregnancy too early, and Dr Slepian

calls these secrets burdensome, meaning worrying, troublesome or distressing.

It seems secrets do vary from culture to culture...

But what everyone wants to know is the missing ingredient in Coca Cola, so

come on, Beth, tell us the secret answer to your question!

OK. I asked about

TV presenter,

Joanna Lumley,

who thinks she's found out

Coca Cola's secret spicy ingredient.

Well, I guessed that

it was nutmeg... And that was the correct answer!

Good guess, Neil! Travelling in Indonesia,

Joanna noticed lots of nutmeg being grown and asked who was buying it,

only to be told Coca Cola.

OK, let's recap the vocabulary

we've learnt from this programme, starting with the idiom

spill the beans, meaning to reveal a secret.

A guilty pleasure is something you really enjoy doing,

but which also gives you a feeling of guilt or shame.

A marriage proposal is the act of asking someone to marry you.

The phrase the whole point of something describes the most

important reason or purpose for it. The evil eye is a superstition in which

someone causes injury or bad luck through a look.

And finally, the adjective burdensome means worrying, troublesome

or distressing. Once again,

our six minutes are up but I'll tell you a secret,

you can join us again next time for more topical vocabulary here at 6 Minute

English. Goodbye for now. Bye!