Seeking redemption? Confess the truth first

Tell the whole truth to crush that guilt feeling and live happily thereafter.

People feel worse when they tell only part of the truth about a transgression compared to people who come completely clean, according to new research.

"Confessing to only part of one's transgressions suits most of people because they expect the confession to be more guilt-relieving than not confessing," said lead author Eyal Pe'er, who ran the studies at Carnegie Mellon University and is now at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

"But our findings show just the opposite is true," Pe'er said.

Confessing to some bad behaviour was more common than making a full confession among those who cheated as much as possible in the study.

But only telling part of the truth, as opposed to not confessing at all, was more likely to lead to increased feelings of guilt, shame and anxiety, the research found.

"It is best to commit to an all-or-nothing approach when it comes to confessing," said Pe'er, who conducted the research with Alessandro Acquisti of Carnegie Mellon University and Shaul Shalvi from Ben-Gurion University in Israel.

Cheaters who confessed just part of their wrongdoing were also judged more harshly by others than cheaters who didn't confess at all, said the study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The researchers did five experiments on 4,167 people from all over the US.

People confessed to a wide range of transgressions, including cheating in school, drug and alcohol use, infidelity and lying.

People were more likely to say they had fully rather than partially confessed to infidelity. But more participants said they only partially confessed when it was about lying or hiding the truth.

"Paradoxically, people seeking redemption by partially admitting their big lies feel guiltier because they do not take complete responsibility for their behaviours," Pe'er said.

"True guilt relief may require people to fully come clean," he added.