People are generally reluctant to transmit bad news to others. To examine this reluctance, college students (N=96) were randomly assigned to two conditions (i.e., assistant or confederate subject). Assistants administered a "psychological inventory" to confederate subjects. Student assistants believed the subject had previously taken one inventory and had either done well or poorly. Further, students believed the previous test results were either valid (low ambiguity) or of questionable validity (high ambiguity). The confederate then requested feedback from the assistant and their responses were recorded. Analyses of results showed that the students transmitted positive information more readily than negative information, and that they spoke more in high-ambiguous rather than low-ambiguous conditions. Research varying task importance is needed. (WAS)