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Research

Disclosing Information About the Self Is Intrinsically Rewarding

Tamir & Mitchell (2012) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(21)

Relied on in 3 places across the academy · 2 stated limits

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What it found

Talking about oneself engaged the brain's reward regions, and across five studies people gave up money for the chance to do it.

Self-disclosure is intrinsically rewarding — people will forgo money for the chance to do it.

What it does not show

Neuroimaging plus laboratory choices about money. It establishes that self-disclosure is rewarding to the person disclosing, not that quieter people are better liked.

And where we carry it further

Neuroimaging plus behavioural choice, in the lab. It establishes that self-disclosure is rewarding, not that quieter people are better liked.

It shows talking is rewarding for them, not that silence persuades.

Where we rely on it

3 places in the academy. If this paper turned out to be wrong, this is the list that would have to change. Some of the instructions below are part of Gold; none of the findings are.

Cited alongside it

Papers that sit under the same topics and films. Not a claim that they agree with each other — only that the same exercises lean on both.

Research

A real study. We tell you what it found, how many people were in it, and what it can't prove.

Free to read, link to and quote. If we have carried this paper further than it goes, say so at contact@suaviq.com — corrections to this registry are the most useful mail we get.