Friendships also cause the majority of us to enter into an implicit understanding regarding the secrecy of our friends' communications with us. One of the hallmarks of friendship is, in fact, an unstated understanding that the relationship confers the ability to share some things that normally would be closely held, or withheld from others. This “friendship confidentiality” can be invoked at any time, and, what's more, invoked retroactively: “Hey, by the way, what I just said, you won't share that, right?”
