A recent study from Carnegie Mellon University found that men are less likely to share bad news compared to women. However, both genders are equally inclined to share good news.

The researchers suggest that this difference might be because men worry more about how they appear to others. As a result, they tend to highlight the positive things in their lives and keep negative experiences to themselves.

Keeping up appearances

“The results from our studies revealed a consistent, and to the best of our knowledge not previously identified, nuanced pattern, wherein the tendency for women to disclose more than men depends crucially on the nature of the information shared,” the researchers explain.

“These findings can help make sense of the existing literature, as well as clarify some existing stereotypes, around gender differences in disclosure.”

Most previous studies on how men and women share information were done before the internet became such a big part of our lives. In today’s world, people regularly post things online, so this new study helps us understand how we share information in the digital age and what the outcomes of sharing can be.

How we share

To figure out how men and women share different types of information, the researchers did three experiments with over 1,000 participants. In the first experiment, people shared times when they really wanted to tell others something and then said whether they actually shared it.

Even though both men and women had similar situations where they wanted to share good news (like getting a promotion), men were much less likely to want to share bad news (like not getting a promotion). In two more experiments, the researchers measured how much people wanted to share and how much they actually shared about various topics and experiences.

The study also found that women were more content with how much they shared compared to men. Most men tended to keep their thoughts and feelings to themselves, even when it might have been a good idea to share them with others.

“Disclosure is increasingly prevalent and permanent in the digital age. The advent of social media and digital communication channels has enabled unprecedented levels of information sharing, which is accompanied by an array of social and psychological consequences,” the authors conclude.

“Our results show that gender remains an important fault line when it comes to the desire and propensity to disclose negative information, and men may be differentially advantaged by, or vulnerable to, the consequences of information sharing compared to women.”