Abstract
The sense of unwanted transparency refers to feelings that are experienced when someone appears to notice someting during an interaction which one would rather not have them notice. This study investigated the effect of cognitive load on responses arising from the sense of unwanted transparency. First, the cognitive load required for intentional control of self-presentation and the sense of unwanted transparency were manipulated and nonverbal responses were measured. These activities with participans were videotaped. Then, observers were asked to rate videotapes of the participants for verbal content and their overall impressions. the results indicated that participants with a higher cognitive load displayed more nonverbal responses and less adequate verbal responses than participants with a lower cognitive load. Furthermore, the cognitive load affected the observers' impressions through responses arising from the sense of unwanted transparency.
