Nearly half of Britons have a secret they’ll take to their grave

Key takeaways

  • 47% of Britons admit to having at least one secret they’ll take to their grave, including 34% who say they have multiple secrets they never intend to reveal
  • 91% of Britons say they’re good at keeping other people’s secrets
  • Just 27% of Britons enjoy being told other people’s secrets, with 19% disliking being entrusted with confidential information
  • Younger Britons are much more likely than older Britons to like being told other people’s secrets
  • 46% of those who admit to being bad at keeping secrets say they like being privy to confidential

Secrets are rarely not intriguing, but few have captured the British public’s imagination in recent years as much as the hit game show The Traitors, which was last week announced to be remaining on the BBC until at least 2030.

For those picked as traitors on the show, keeping their identity secret is key to success. While a previous YouGov study found that just 20% of Britons would rather have the role of traitor, how many Britons have an aptitude for keeping other secrets?

Nearly half of Britons (47%) say they have at least one secret they intend to take to their grave, including 34% who have multiple secrets they never intend to share.

Perhaps surprisingly, having such deep secrets doesn’t vary hugely by personal openness. Nearly half (47%) of the 55% of Britons who say they are open about their personal life say they hold at least one secret they wish to be buried with, roughly the same as the 50% of people who describe themselves as not open when it comes to personal matters.

Whether all these secrets stay secret is another matter. More than a third of those who say they are bad at keeping their own secrets (37%) have at least one secret they hope to take to their grave.

Are Britons good at keeping secrets?

These loose-lipped Britons are, though, in the minority, with nearly nine in ten Britons (87%) describing themselves as good at keeping their own secrets, relative to just 11% who feel they are bad at keeping their skeletons in the closet.

This margin rises to 91% versus 7% when it comes to guarding other people’s secrets, with 69% of those who feel they are bad at keeping their own secrets saying they are good at keeping schtum about other’s innermost truths.

Do Britons like being told secrets?

Of course, not everybody wants to be entrusted with someone else’s secrets, with just 27% of Britons saying they actively love or like being confided in, while 19% say they dislike or hate being burdened by others’ confessions. A further 51% say they are not particularly bothered either way.

Younger Britons are much more receptive to being told others’ secrets, with 57% of 18-24 year olds saying they like or love being in receipt of ‘the tea’, compared to just 11% of over 65s.

Women are twice as likely to be happy than unhappy to be told others’ secrets (32% vs 16%), while men are roughly as likely to dislike being told them (23%) as to like being let in on a secret (22%).

When it comes to sharing secrets, caution should always be the watchword: just because someone is happy to hear your secrets doesn’t mean you should trust them. Nearly half of those who say they are bad at keeping other people’s secrets (46%) say they like being told other people’s secrets, compared to just 26% of those who say they are good at not spilling the beans.

See the full results here

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Photo: Getty

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