When you’ve got a secret, it can feel like the truth coming out would be the worst possible thing in the world. We fear judgment; not only for the original issue, but for the secrecy we maintained around it. All this worry can be a significant weight to walk around carrying.

So what if you just… spilled the secret? The consequences of doing so are likely to be much better than you assume, at least according to a new bit of research.

The study, from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, asked people to imagine revealing a negative secret to someone else and to predict how that person would judge them. Then came the scary bit: the researchers asked each participant to go ahead and reveal that secret, and then found out how the people learning the truth actually felt.

It turned out that the judgment the secret-keepers expected was far worse than the judgment itself. And what’s more, those who revealed they had kept a secret weren’t viewed poorly because they had been secretive; instead, the act of revealing the secret meant these people were viewed as more honest and trustworthy.

Got a secret? Revealing the truth will go better than you imagine, says a new study