Psst! Can you keep a secret? Yana Iskayeva/Getty Images The average person is keeping nine types of secrets, ranging from having told a lie to covert romantic desires. This can be a major burden, because secrets have the troubling habit of flashing into the mind unbidden. Confessing them can sometimes bring relief, but some secrets are too sensitive to be shared. As a result, researchers are investigating psychological strategies for coping with them. “You might think about secrets when you’re showering, when you’re doing your dishes or when you’re heading to work,” says Val Bianchi at the University of Melbourne in Australia. “Having these thoughts pop into your mind when you don’t necessarily want them to is often unpleasant, and people seem to get caught in vicious cycles of thinking spontaneously about their secrets as they go about their life, and feeling worse about them.” Bianchi has spent years investigating the psychological burden of secret-keeping and ways to ease it, with her latest research being funded by the Australian Office of National Intelligence. Intelligence operatives must …