Why one can not keep a secret

Unlike what we usually think about the brain, it doesn’t have one central driver. Instead, the brain consists of a lot of competing strength that are trying to drive the ship. In fact one is not one thing. In the brain, there are different political parties which form a parliament that decide what you do. This is why people often find it is hard to decide and cajole themselves and contract with themselves. It’s because these strengths are all trying to be in control.

This sheds light on a lot of issues about human behavior. One of them is about why one can’t keep a secret. You may say it could be a toaster or something like that. Maybe you need to take over rivals framework to understand what a secret is, which is that a part of your brain wants to tell something and another part of your brain doesn’t want to because of the social consequences of it. You need multiple parts of the brain that are in competition with one another. If all these different parts want to tell the story, then it’s just a good story. And if none of the parts want to tell it, then it’s just something you don't do. It’s that tension that you get from different populations in the brain, that's what constitutes a secret.