Secrecy

Secrecy is the condition of hiding information from others. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret.

One may have to lie in order to hold a secret, which might lead to psychological repercussions.

The alternative, when asked about something, declining to answer, may suggest the answer and may therefore not always be suitable to keep the secret. Also the other may insist that one answers the question. See also Don't ask, don't tell.

Topics for an article on secrecy

Animals, including humans, generally endeavor to conceal the location of their den or nest from predators.
Humans attempt to consciously conceal aspects of themselves from others, due to, for example, shame or fear of rejection, loss of acceptance, loss of employment, or other negative repurcussion.
Humans attempt to conceal aspects of their own self which they are not capable of incorporating psychologically into their conscious being.
Families maintain "family secrets", a mutually agreed-upon construct (an official family story) to never discuss disagreeable issues concerning the family, either within the family or with those outside the family. Agreement to maintain the secret is often coerced through the use of such tactics as "shaming" and reference to family honour.
Governments and corporations often attempt to conceal information about their operations from other governments or corporations.
Preservation of secrets in one of the goals of information security.
Secret keys are essential in most cryptography, which in turn has as its goal the hiding of secrets.
Information hiding is a design principle in much software engineering.
Keeping one's strategy secret is important in many aspects of game theory
Secret societies -- why keep membership a secret? why not?