"The Difference" was published twice in 1923, first in June in Harper's Magazine and then only a few months later as one of seven stories included in Glasgow's collection The Shadowy Third. The volume was primarily comprised of ghost stories and tales of the supernatural with "The Difference" one of the notable exceptions. While the collection was reviewed by most well-known newspapers, Glasgow was primarily a novelist. As such, The Shadowy Third received little attention, though most reviewers did comment favorably on Glasgow's latest effort. The New York Times reviewer particularly enjoyed the ghost stories, while the Literary Review commended Glasgow's "extraordinarily fine" construction and craftsmanship of stories. Reviewer Rebecca Lowrie went on to praise The Shadowy Third, finding it "without waste of words, carelessness of phrase, or ill-considered characterization."

Critical attention paid to the story did not greatly increase over the decades. Only as scholars devoted...