Women 'cannot keep a secret for longer than 47 hours'

Researchers found that women are overcome by a burning desire to share gossip as soon as they hear it.

They will typically spill the beans to at least one other person in 47 hours and 15 minutes.

Depending on who the gossip is about, their boyfriend, husband, best friend or mother are most likely to be the initial recipients of the information.

The study of 3,000 women aged between 18 and 65 also found that four out of ten admitted they were unable to keep a secret – no matter how personal or confidential the news was.

It also found that alcohol usually gives us a helping hand to blurt out secrets – with more than half admitting a glass or two of wine could prompt them to dish the dirt.

Michael Cox, UK Director of Wines of Chile, which commissioned the research to mark Chile's National Day on Friday, said: "It's official – women can't keep secrets.

"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 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.

"And juicy gossip can really flow after a couple of glasses of wine."

The study found the nation's ladies hear three nuggets of gossip a week, but end up passing it on to at least one other person.

Six in 10 end up telling someone completely uninvolved so the person the secret belongs to won't know.

Three in 10 admitted having the urge to reveal someone's secret. Nearly half (45 per cent) disclose secrets just for the weight to be lifted from their shoulders.

However, two thirds end up feeling guilty are passing on secrets.

Three quarters say they are capable of keeping quiet about a secret, and 83 per cent consider themselves 100 per cent trustworthy within each group of friends.

Yet, four in ten admit to gossiping to a close friend from another friendship group.

More than four in ten think it is acceptable to share a friend's secret with someone who does not know them, with over 40 per cent saying their husband is their ultimate confidant.

Intimate issues, true cost of purchases and affairs emerged top of the secret-keeping list, with girls most likely to share a secret chatting face-to-face, on the phone or via a text message.

Fortunately for some though, over a quarter (27 per cent) said they forgot what they were told the following day.