Men are less comfortable about sharing bad news than women - but are happy to talk about positive developments.
Men are less likely to disclose bad news
1,000 people were studied over three experiments in which they were quizzed on what they wanted to share, whether they did or not and their reasons for doing so.
It is commonly thought that women are bigger shares of information than men but the findings suggested that gender differences were actually based on the nature of the information being disclosed.
The researchers - from Bayes Business School in London, Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania and Bocconi University in Milan - said: "Men and women exhibit a similar desire and likelihood to disclose positive information, but men have a substantially lower desire and likelihood to disclose negative information than women.
"Men may be missing out on the psychological benefits of disclosing negative information."