Two days. A Wines of Chile commissioned study surveyed 3000 women between the ages of 18 and 65 and discovered that four in ten women could not keep a secret. No matter how personal or damage-inducing the secret, more than half of that number admitted that a few glasses of wine could make the process that much easier. The study also concluded that boyfriends, husbands, best friends and mothers as initial recipients of the information were most likely.
UK Director of Wines of Chile, Michael Cox said:
“We were really keen to find out with this survey how many secrets people are told. What we didn’t bank on was how quickly these are passed on by those we confide in. No matter how precious the piece of information, it’s often out in the public domain within 48 hours. That means every single Brit who has confided in a friend should be worried because they don’t know where their secret is heading."
The average woman hears three pieces of gossip every week and will probably pass it on to at least one more person. Three in ten women are compelled to reveal secrets, two-thirds feel guilty after doing it and only three-quarters claim that they can be fully trusted to keep a secret to themselves. What’s more, more than four in ten women consider it a-okay to share a friend’s secret with someone who does not personally know them. Mr. Cox adds,
“The fact they offload gossip to someone completely unrelated to the matter or in a different social group can be comforting, but while nine in ten girls deem themselves trustworthy – they still have spilt the beans.”
Thankfully, 27% revealed that they didn’t remember what they were told the next day.