Gender and Sex-Role Differences in Intimacy of Self-Disclosure

Abstract

The present study examined the relationship of gender and sex-role type to intimacy of self-disclosure. Participants wrote descriptions of themselves which were supposedly to be given to another person, whom they were led to believe they would later meet. Women were significantly more intimate in their self-disclosures than were men. Differences in intimacy of disclosure were also found for different sex-role types, but contrary to expectations, femininity was not positively related to disclosure. Instead, masculinity was negatively related to intimacy of self-disclosure.