Two surveys and a laboratory experiment examined the role of secrecy i
n attraction to relationships. In the first survey, respondents report
ed that past relationships they currently continued to think about wer
e more likely to have been secret than ones they no longer pondered. I
n the second survey, those respondents who indicated that a past relat
ionship had been secret also reported that it continued to be a target
of their obsessive preoccupation. The laboratory experiment explored
attraction between mixed-sex couples who were induced to play footsie
under a table in the presence of another couple. When this was secret,
greater attraction for the partner was reported than when it was not.