Abstract
Background: Given their highly unacceptable nature, negative intrusions are likely to promote the experience of negative affect such as fear, shame and guilt. Moreover, moral thought-action fusion (believing that negative thinking is the equivalent of acting immorally) is likely to inflate the occurrence of negative affect when intrusions are experienced. In turn, negative affect is likely related to disclosure. The current study investigated whether thought-action fusion beliefs predict anticipated disclosure of hypothetical negative intrusions, and whether this was mediated by anticipated negative affect. Method: An online survey was completed by a sample from the general population (n=175). The survey assessed anticipated negative affect and anticipated disclosure of hypothetical negative intrusions, guilt and shame proneness, frequency of negative intrusions, thought-action-fusion beliefs, and general self-concealment. Results: A strong positive relationship was found between TAF-Moral beliefs and anticipated negative affect from experiencing negative intrusions. The analysis indicated evidence of co-operative suppression: when both TAF-moral beliefs and negative affect were entered into a model predicting anticipated disclosure, the effect of both predictors increased. Whereas TAF-Moral beliefs predicted lower likelihood of disclosure, negative affect predicted increased likelihood of disclosure. Conclusion: The current findings add to the literature in that they suggest that individuals may be less inclined to disclose unacceptable intrusions. Further work is needed to understand the conditions under which negative intrusions are more or less likely to be disclosed. Limitations and recommendations are discussed.