Perceived Benefits and Risks of Emotional Self-Disclosure in Therapy and Online Spaces

Abstract

Emotional self-disclosure, talking about one’s private thoughts and feelings, has been central to help-seeking and help-receiving since Freud. Previous research has explored how tendencies to self-disclose in therapy are influenced by personality traits such as shame, guilt, and attachment style; it has also suggested that client self-disclosure influences therapy outcomes. Relatively little research has explored how individuals conceptualize different “targets” of self-disclosure—that is, individuals or groups to whom they choose to reveal personal information. Common targets of emotional self-disclosure have included individual and group therapy since their invention as interventions in the early 20th century, as well as family and other close relationships. More recently, anonymous and non-anonymous social media and conversational AI have gained attention as possible emotional self-disclosure targets. The present study examined how personality and demographic characteristics may be associated with emotional self-disclosure preferences. A previously validated therapy research measure was adapted and used to gather self-report data via MTurk from 671 participants about how rewarding and risky they would find emotionally self-disclosing towards different targets, including more relational targets such as therapists and family, and less relational targets such as anonymous social media and AI. Initial analysis revealed personality and demographic traits that contribute towards self-disclosure preferences. Further analysis segregated participants into three groups based on level of therapy experience: none, low, high. Latent profile analyses of these three groups revealed multiple psychologically distinct subclasses. Findings suggested that preferences for self-disclosure targets are highly differentiated, with individuals weighing both psychological and social risk and reward factors in deciding where to self-disclose. Individuals high in trait shame and insecure attachment showed no preference for more relational targets over less relational targets. These “omni-disclosers” appeared in each therapy experience-level group, as did “relational-preferrers” who on average were less socially anxious and less ashamed. The results highlighted the context-sensitive nature of modern help-seeking and reflect a world in which engaging in emotional self-disclosure on anonymous social media and with conversational AI is increasingly normal, even among those engaged in other supports such as therapy. Directions for future research and applications for therapy training, digital intervention design and ethics, and public mental health outreach were discussed