Noun
guardedness (countable and uncountable, plural guardednesses)
The state or condition of being guarded.
The moment with Hawkeye is all about mutual attraction, expressed without filter from him, and a surrendering of social guardedness from Cora. She accepts his directness as her own. Madeleine Stowe
I own any form of humor shows fear and inferiority. Irony is simply a kind of guardedness. So is a twinkle. It keeps the reader from criticism. Robert Frost