Gender Differences in Self-reported Emotional Sharing in Social Interaction: A Meta Analysis
Abstract
Through emotional sharing, individuals can make their emotional experiences available to others, creating opportunities for interpersonal emotion regulation. Although gender differences in these behaviours have been documented across various domains, findings regarding their magnitude and consistency remain inconclusive. This meta-analysis examined gender differences in emotional sharing among adults. A systematic search identified 32 articles comprising 37 independent samples, 155 effect sizes, and 13,147 participants, including 8,504 women and 4,643 men. Overall, women reported higher levels of emotional sharing than men, g = 0.31, 95% CI [0.18, 0.44]. This effect was not significantly moderated by (1) functions (emotional expression, emotional disclosure, emotional expression as coping), (2) temporal level (dispositional, situational), (3) emotional valence (negative, positive or unspecified), (4) specific negative emotion (anger, sadness, fear/anxiety, shame/guilt, and unspecified negative emotions), and (5) the interpersonal target (romantic partner, friend, other, or no partner specified). Despite the absence of significant moderation effects, pooled estimates within most subgroups remained significantly positive, indicating higher levels of expression and disclosure among women than men across a wide range of emotional contexts and interpersonal relations.
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BibTeX
@misc{jia2026gender,
title = {{Gender Differences in Self-reported Emotional Sharing in Social Interaction: A Meta Analysis}},
author = {Jia, X. (Xihan) and Karen Holtmaat and Mo, Y. (Yifan) and ZIHAO Zeng and Kaneva, M. (Michaela) and Kleiboer, A.M. (AM) and Sander L. Koole},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/86jgx_v2},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/86jgx_v2/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Gender Differences in Self-reported Emotional Sharing in Social Interaction: A Meta Analysis
AU - Jia, X. (Xihan)
AU - Karen Holtmaat
AU - Mo, Y. (Yifan)
AU - ZIHAO Zeng
AU - Kaneva, M. (Michaela)
AU - Kleiboer, A.M. (AM)
AU - Sander L. Koole
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/26
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/86jgx_v2
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/86jgx_v2/
AB - Through emotional sharing, individuals can make their emotional experiences available to others, creating opportunities for interpersonal emotion regulation. Although gender differences in these behaviours have been documented across various domains, findings regarding their magnitude and consistency remain inconclusive. This meta-analysis examined gender differences in emotional sharing among adults. A systematic search identified 32 articles comprising 37 independent samples, 155 effect sizes, and 13,147 participants, including 8,504 women and 4,643 men. Overall, women reported higher levels of emotional sharing than men, g = 0.31, 95% CI [0.18, 0.44]. This effect was not significantly moderated by (1) functions (emotional expression, emotional disclosure, emotional expression as coping), (2) temporal level (dispositional, situational), (3) emotional valence (negative, positive or unspecified), (4) specific negative emotion (anger, sadness, fear/anxiety, shame/guilt, and unspecified negative emotions), and (5) the interpersonal target (romantic partner, friend, other, or no partner specified). Despite the absence of significant moderation effects, pooled estimates within most subgroups remained significantly positive, indicating higher levels of expression and disclosure among women than men across a wide range of emotional contexts and interpersonal relations.
ER -