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Is Hiding Success a Good Idea? A Systematic Review of Reasons and Costs of Hiding Success
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Author: Jingjing Yao, Yuxin Xie
Abstract: Hiding success, which is defined as intentionally withholding positive information about oneself or one’s accomplishments, is a common phenomenon and culturally recognized. It has been found that hiding success is guided by paternalistic motives and it may have social costs. Although the consequences of hiding success within many different types of relationships are slightly different, sharing success is better than hiding success. From the point of view of explaining the reasons and costs of hiding success, a systematic review was conducted in this paper. There have been some limitations of the current literature, such as the lack of systematic theoretical explanation of the mechanism of hiding success. We recommended that future research should explore deeply from the aspects of a real-world setting, the communication medium and choice of words, the relationship between the communicator and target, culture and so on.
Keywords: Interpersonal Communication, Hiding Success, Deception, Paternalism
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