Member Article

Britain pours its heart out to strangers

People in Britain are willing to pour their heart out and share personal details about their love life, family life and work problems with complete strangers, research by secure online payment provider PayPal reveals. The research was designed to find out how much information people in Britain unwittingly reveal about themselves to people they have known for less than 24 hours.

7% admitted that they open up about what is wrong with their love life to almost complete strangers, double that amount reveal problems at work, and 11% also open up about their private medical problems. 15% say they regretted sharing their secrets the next day, and over a quarter (29%) say they were not even sure why they chose to talk about their problems to people they do not know

Cristina Hoole, from PayPal comments: “The research has revealed that people in Britain aren’t backwards in coming forwards, and seem to have a no holds barred policy when it comes to revealing information about themselves. Britons admitted to sharing anything from medical problems to love life problems with almost total strangers. “There is of course a serious point to be made; people need to be careful about giving away too much information such as financial or medical details to people they do not know which can leave you open to unscrupulous people out there.”

The research also revealed that 20% of people in Britain divulged their secrets to strangers they met on the bus and will never see again, with four in ten people (43%) opening up to a stranger at a party, with 36% of people telling all on a first date.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .