Which relationships create more attraction and obsession?

Secret ones.

Past relationships kept secret are the ones we continue to think about and obsess over.

And secret games of footsie create more attraction than those that aren’t secret. I have scientific data here, folks:

Two surveys and a laboratory experiment examined the role of secrecy in attraction to relationships. In the 1st survey, respondents reported that past relationships they currently continued to think about were more likely to have been secret than ones they no longer pondered. In the 2nd survey, those respondents who indicated that a past relationship 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.

Source: “The allure of secret relationships.” from Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 66(2), Feb 1994, 287-300.

Hat tip: Psyblog

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