Summary: Men are less likely than women to share negative information, while both genders are similarly likely to share positive news.
A multi-institution study involving more than 1,000 participants finds that men’s concerns about social perception can lead them to withhold negative experiences while sharing positive information at similar rates to women. The research highlights gender-specific disclosure patterns in the digital age and examines satisfaction with one’s own disclosure behavior.
Overall, women reported greater satisfaction with their level of disclosure, while many men indicated a tendency to withhold information even when sharing might have been beneficial.
Key Facts:
- Men are less inclined than women to share negative experiences, which the authors link to concerns about how they are perceived by others.
- Across three experiments with over 1,000 participants, both genders were equally likely to report wanting to share positive information.
- Women generally reported higher satisfaction with their level of disclosure; men more often reported withholding thoughts and feelings.
Source: City University London
A new collaborative study from Carnegie Mellon University, Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), and Bocconi University finds that men are less eager to share negative information than women, while both sexes display similar tendencies to share positive news.
Published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the paper suggests that men’s reluctance to disclose negative experiences stems in part from concern about social perception. This leads to selective self-promotion: sharing positive achievements while withholding failures or setbacks.
Dr Erin Carbone, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University and the study’s first author, explained that their findings reveal a nuanced pattern: women’s tendency to disclose more than men depends substantially on the valence of the information shared.
“These findings help clarify mixed results in past literature and shed light on common stereotypes about gender differences in disclosure,” Dr Carbone said.
Sharing in the digital age
Much earlier research on gender and disclosure predates widespread internet use. Because social media and other digital platforms now make sharing frequent and persistent, the authors examined how men and women differ in what they disclose online and offline, and what that might mean for social and psychological outcomes.
The team conducted three experiments totaling more than 1,000 participants. In the first study, participants recalled moments when they felt an intense desire to disclose something and then reported whether they followed through. Men and women recalled similar numbers of impulses to share positive events—such as getting a promotion—but men reported fewer impulses to disclose negative events, such as being passed over for a promotion.
Two subsequent studies used scaled scenarios to measure both the desire to disclose and the likelihood of actually sharing positive or negative information across a range of topics and experiences. Results consistently pointed to an interaction between gender and the valence of information: men and women were comparable in sharing positive information, but men were markedly less likely to want to share, or to act on the impulse to share, negative information.
Disclosure patterns and satisfaction
In addition to differences in what people disclose, the study measured satisfaction with disclosure. Women generally reported greater satisfaction with how much they shared, while many men reported feeling more withholding than what they considered optimal. The authors also found that men are relatively more motivated to disclose for self-enhancement, whereas women tend to view their sharing as more normative.
Professor Irene Scopelliti, Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science at Bayes Business School and a co-author, noted that disclosure is increasingly widespread and permanent in the digital era. “Our results show that gender remains an important dividing line when it comes to the desire and propensity to share negative information,” she said. “Men and women may experience different advantages and vulnerabilities from their distinct sharing behaviors.”
About this psychology research news
Author: George Wigmore
Source: City University London
Contact: George Wigmore – City University London
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
Title: “He said, she said: Gender differences in the disclosure of positive and negative information” by Erin Carbone et al., Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Abstract
He said, she said: Gender differences in the disclosure of positive and negative information
Research on gender differences in self-disclosure has produced mixed findings, and some observed differences may depend on the measures used. This paper examines whether self-identified gender accounts for differences in the desire and propensity to disclose information and whether those differences depend on information valence. Across three studies using two approaches—a free-recall task to capture extreme desire to disclose (Study 1, N = 195) and scaled responses to scenarios that manipulate valence in an exploratory study (Study 2, N = 547) and a preregistered replication (Study 3, N = 405)—the authors find robust evidence of an interaction between gender and information valence.
Male participants resembled female participants in their desire and likelihood to disclose positive information but were less likely than women to want to share negative information and less likely to act on any such desire. Men also report being more motivated to disclose for self-enhancement, while women perceive their sharing to be more normative. Given the increasing permanence of disclosure in the digital age, these gendered differences in sharing may produce distinct advantages and vulnerabilities for men and women when it comes to the social and psychological consequences of information sharing.