The study, published in Patient Education and Counseling, found that female medical students also appeared less confident to patients.

"We observed third-year medical students interacting with individuals simulating patients and gave the students a battery of tests measuring non-verbal sensitivity," senior author Richard M. Frankel of the Indiana University School of Medicine and a Regenstrief Institute, said in a statement.

"Despite objective test performance that is equal to or greater than their male classmates there was something about the way in which the female medical students were observed and experienced their communication with patients that made them less confident."

A literature survey by the study authors, which accompanied their observational report and analysis, shows that while there is no consistent gender difference in academic performance, female medical students tend to underestimate their abilities while males tend to overestimate theirs.

The finding of decreased confidence among female medical students is important because it makes it very clear that somewhere in the training of future physicians the issue of confidence needs to be addressed, Frankel said.