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New research suggests the quiet thrill of keeping good secrets and not sharing with others can be energising.

That's one of the conclusion of a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition included five experiments with a total of 2,800 participants between the ages of 18 and 78.

Michael Slepian, an associate professor at Columbia University in New York, was a lead researcher on the study.

Newsday asked him what inspired him to study secrets.

"When we first started this research ten years ago we didn't know what people kept secret... prior studies have created brand new secret in the lab but haven't studies the secret we kept in our real lives so that's what we've been doing."

"When we keep a secret we're protecting a goal. When it's something we have complete control over it - positive secrets - just thinking about them can be energising."

(Pic: Three young women enjoy a chat in a cafe; Credit: Getty Images)