Women's Secrets: Spilled in 47 Hours & 15 Minutes

[Char. Limit]

You realize, right, that not all women are gossip mongers? Perhaps the typical woman gossips, but I'm not a typical woman (as evidenced by me pursuing physics) and I don't gossip. I have better things to think about.

Of course. For every stereotype there are numerous exceptions. I believe, however, based on personal experience, that the majority of women are gossip-mongers.

 

[Char. Limit]

I can't believe you guys are my colleagues! No wonder women have such a hard time getting academic positions. Before you've even carried on a conversation with us, you've already decided we're worthless, gossipy human beings. How the h3ll am I supposed to share the results of an experiment I've conducted or give a talk when so many of you have decided before-hand that I'm not worth listening to?

You realize LisaB is a girl... right?

 

[Hurkyl]

Of course. For every stereotype there are numerous exceptions. I believe, however, based on personal experience, that the majority of women are gossip-mongers.

Wow, you know the majority of women?

 

[Char. Limit]

Wow, you know the majority of women?

You're right. That statement needs to be revised.

The vast majority of women that I know are gossipmongers.

 

[lisab]

I can't believe you guys are my colleagues! No wonder women have such a hard time getting academic positions. Before you've even carried on a conversation with us, you've already decided we're worthless, gossipy human beings. How the h3ll am I supposed to share the results of an experiment I've conducted or give a talk when so many of you have decided before-hand that I'm not worth listening to?

I'm a woman, a working scientist, with a physics degree. That post was from The Onion, which is satire .

Welcome to PF!

 

[Galteeth]

I have been good friends with a certain girl for a long time, and she keeps absolutely all of my secrets, as I do hers.

It wouldn't apply in this case, but once you've gone past a certain level with some one, even if you are angry at them, breaking confidence is kind of an M.A.D. situation.

 

[Math Is Hard]

The best secret keeper I've ever met is my little sister. We call her "The Vault". You'll never get anything out of her.

 

[Gokul43201]

:/

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.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6199822/Women-cannot-keep-a-secret-for-longer-than-47-hours.html"


That reminds me of a joke;

The three fastest ways of communication in the world; telephone, television and tell a women. Still need a faster way? ... Tell her not to tell anyone!


Seriously, what do you think?

Reminds me of a little story from Indian Mythology.

Queen Kunti has a son (Karna) when she is really young, and still unwed. She panics, and sends the baby Karna floating away in a basket, and never tells anyone about it. Karna grows up to fight in a great war, and ends up being killed by his own brothers (who are on the other side, and do not know that Karna is their brother). When the brothers finally find out Karna's identity (at his funeral), the oldest of them gets really mad that their mother kept this secret from them, and curses all women of the future to never be able to keep a secret.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karna#After_Karna.27s_death

 

[turbo]

The best secret keeper I've ever met is my little sister. We call her "The Vault". You'll never get anything out of her.

I want a sister like that. Instead I have 3 sieves. Actually, they are not passive like sieves - the information comes out fast, like out of a hydrant.

If you want everyone to believe something about a 3rd party, no matter how inconsequential or how damaging it could be, just tell one of my sisters and tell her that "it's a secret". It'll be all over in no time flat.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Wow, you know the majority of women?

That wouldn't be necessary -- with statistical sampling, as few as, say, 20 might suffice. (For a 95% confidence Agresti-Coull interval, you'd need 17+ out of the 20 to be gossip-mongers in that case.) Of course you'd need a sample with good statistical properties, which a natural group of friends would almost always lack.

 

[Char. Limit]

That wouldn't be necessary -- with statistical sampling, as few as, say, 20 might suffice. (For a 95% confidence Agresti-Coull interval, you'd need 17+ out of the 20 to be gossip-mongers in that case.) Of course you'd need a sample with good statistical properties, which a natural group of friends would almost always lack.

Well, my sample is about 93 women I know from high school, work, family friends, and friends of friends. Of those, about 58 (note: heavily approximate) have freely gossiped to me about others. What does that give?

 

[CRGreathouse]

Well, my sample is about 93 women I know from high school, work, family friends, and friends of friends. Of those, about 58 (note: heavily approximate) have freely gossiped to me about others. What does that give?

If they were randomly selected from some population (e.g., women in the United States), and at least 58 were gossip-mongers, then you could conclude with 95% confidence that the majority of that population are gossip-mongers. (Actually, if you use the Clopper-Pearson interval you could make that conclusion with only 57 gossip-mongers, but from what I've read the Agresti-Coull interval is better in general.)

Edit: Spooky, the way our numbers lined up! If it was exactly 58, the specific (AC; 95%) conclusion is that 51.7% to 72.3% of the population freely gossip in like fashion.

 

[Char. Limit]

If they were randomly selected from some population (e.g., women in the United States), and at least 58 were gossip-mongers, then you could conclude with 95% confidence that the majority of that population are gossip-mongers. (Actually, if you use the Clopper-Pearson interval you could make that conclusion with only 57 gossip-mongers, but from what I've read the Agresti-Coull interval is better in general.)

Edit: Spooky, the way our numbers lined up! If it was exactly 58, the specific (AC; 95%) conclusion is that 51.7% to 72.3% of the population freely gossip in like fashion.

Ok that is strange. At first I went with a sample of 90 and a positive size of 60, but it seemed a little high in relation to my experiences, so I nudged the sample size up and the other size down to fit my experience better. However, all of these women live within a 30-mile radius of me, so it might be biased.

 

[CRGreathouse]

However, all of these women live within a 30-mile radius of me, so it might be biased.

That would make it representative of women in your 30-mile-radius area, then.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I would have to try hard to think of women I have known that do not gossip. It may be that IRL I tend to be a quiet person and considered a "good listener" so people may simply feel more inclined to trust that they can tell me things that they would not normally tell others. Or perhaps my being quiet makes them feel that they need to speak more to fill the silence and they wind up plumbing the depths of their conversational information. Perhaps it may even be that my quietness attracts female friends who have a greater tendency to talk a lot.

 

[turbo]

I would have to try hard to think of women I have known that do not gossip.

My mother was a fantastic secret-keeper. Family members would confide in her to get stuff off their chests because they could trust her to keep secrets. One day, my great-aunt showed up appearing very upset and she and my mother launched into a pretty excited conversation in French. There was crying and hugging...and I didn't understand why for sure. I was only about 5-6 and though my mother never taught me French, I had picked it up by osmosis, so when her aunt left I asked my mother why she was sad and when "Marie" was going to have her baby. "Marie" was single, teenaged, and pregnant, and used to babysit me sometimes. My mother asked me who told me that, and I told her the she and my aunt were talking about it. After that, I was "invited" to go out and play when the conversations got serious.

 

[latitude]

Gossip is intrinsic to human nature...

It's not always harmful.

The worst gossiper I know is my male, 80-year-old horseback riding coach-- constant backbiting about the other local stables, horses and instructors!

 

[jobyts]

I can't believe you guys are my colleagues! No wonder women have such a hard time getting academic positions. Before you've even carried on a conversation with us, you've already decided we're worthless, gossipy human beings. How the h3ll am I supposed to share the results of an experiment I've conducted or give a talk when so many of you have decided before-hand that I'm not worth listening to?

This thread is for evidence for women's lack of secret keeping skills, not for the evidence for women's lack of sense of humor

 

[lisab]

Gossip is intrinsic to human nature...

It's not always harmful.

The worst gossiper I know is my male, 80-year-old horseback riding coach-- constant backbiting about the other local stables, horses and instructors!

I think people who gossip tend to be people who feel they don't have power. I base this on places I've worked. The worst gossip hotbeds were places where the management didn't tell anything to anybody, and there was never any recognition of a job well-done.

Contrast that to where I am now - very little gossip here. Management does a good job letting us know what the issues are, and everyone is too busy doing their jobs.

Maybe gossip is one way people deal with feeling uninformed and out of control.

 

[Proton Soup]

Gossip is intrinsic to human nature...

It's not always harmful.

The worst gossiper I know is my male, 80-year-old horseback riding coach-- constant backbiting about the other local stables, horses and instructors!

so, did you hear that Mr. Ed was actually a gelding?!

 

[Math Is Hard]

so, did you hear that Mr. Ed was actually a gelding?!