Men Talk More than Women – New Research
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A recent Gallup poll that cited a widespread consensus that women talk more than men — some even believed that women are biologically built for conversation — spawned new research to challenge the accuracy in this conviction.
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A recent set of meta-analyses conducted by Campbell Leaper and Melanie Ayres collected all of the available evidence from decades of scientific study and combined the findings into an overall picture of the differences between men and women concerning their gift of the gab.
The ‘final jury’ is in — men showed a small but statistically reliable tendency to be more talkative than women overall — particularly in certain circumstances, such as when they were speaking to their wives or strangers. Women talked more to their children and college classmates.
The type of speech was also analyzed for verbal behavior in a wide variety of contexts. Women were generally more talkative with strangers when it came to using speech to affirm their connection to the listeners, while men’s speech focused more on an attempt to influence the listener. But with close friends and family there was very little difference between the sexes in the amount of talkativeness.
“These findings compellingly debunk simplistic stereotypes about gender differences in language use.” concluded Leaper and Ayres. “The notion that the female brain is built to systematically out-talk men is hard to square with the finding that gender differences appear and disappear, depending on the interaction context. The results of the meta-analyses bolster arguments for social rather than strong biological influences of gender differences in language use.”
Study from the article, ‘A Meta-Analytic Review of Gender Variations in Adults’ Language Use: Talkativeness, Affliative Speech, and Assertive Speech’ is published by Sage in the November issue of Personality and Social Psychology Review, reports Science Daily.
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Of course, this is a western culture research project. I bet the findings would be different for various cultures.
I think in many Asian cultures men definitely talk less. But, in India this might be the opposite. And in Arab or Muslim cultures woman aren’t allow to talk much at all, let alone drive, vote, or allow any skin to be shown. There’s a crass Arab/Persian saying about “What does a Muslim husband tell his wife with the black eye”? Answer… “Nothing. He’s already told her once”. That was actually told to me by an Iranian storekeeper in the U.S. Who was completely serious about it at the time, and said it in a threatening manner because my girlfriend happened to be scolding me about something. (We didn’t buy anything there.) Sick but true.
That’s very likely true that this was indicative of western culture only, Nitropuppy. OMG, that’s awfully indecent for someone to say living within our own culture! Or anywhere, for that matter.
Indecent? You bet it was. But, these uhm…. “people” don’t really bring the word “decent” to mind. When 9/11 happened, some Muslims in America who enjoy the blessings of freedom where celebrating at the carnage. Look what they do in their own culture. Iranians courts sentance raped woman to death by stoning. They blame the woman for getting raped. WTF? Muslim cultures routinely practice “Honor killings”. Daughters who get caught having sex (outside of marriage) or even rumored to have done that, get dragged out into the brush by their fathers or brothers and have their throats cut. Sharia law demands it. You haven’t heard of this? Perhaps you should do some research and blog about it for your readers. The Arab and Persian Muslim cultures are shockingly backwards and uncivilized. And radical Muslim extremist are spreading like a cancer across the entire planet. Britian,Canada, Europe, Africa, and Asia are all experiencing monstrous problems because of the spread of this twisted, demonic form of religeon. It’s not just a handful of lunatics that once flew passenger jets into buildings. It’s ten of millions spreading the hatred to every corner of the earth. Unfortunately, Western cultures are turning a blind eye to the problem. (Well, maybe not the U.S.) Perhaps we’ll all wake up when a whole city blows sky high in a mushroom cloud by a Muslim jihad lunatic yelling “Allah Akbar”. It’s just a matter of time in my opinion.
Good point about it only being for western culture. Within western culture i still think women talk more, it will take more than one study to change my mind on that
That is just crazy. I know I talk a lot but a lot of guys I know don’t talk as much as me. My wife talks less than me. So its possible.
It was about time someone revealed the truth! LOL
Of course they talk more. They are also in positions where they talk more – look at the politicians.
Heck, even my boyfriend talks more (I hope he never stops though, he does say the sweetest things!)
I’ve always thought that Aussie men talk more than Aussie Women…..English men on the other hand are more restrained and less conversational….
how do you find the Canadian men Deborah….are they the strong silent types ?
Yes Nitropuppy, I have heard of many of these horrors. Mere words cannot convey how ghastly they truly are.
Oh, but this wasn’t only one study Gorilla, it was based on all available studies over the past decades
Well one thing I can attest Sports, is that my husband talks a lot more than I do
Haha, good point about politicians Mig
Very good comeback about your boyfriend though, and very endearing I might add 
I have an English neighbor who is highly talkative, but from from past experience, it doesn’t appear to be the norm Kim. Canadians … all I can safely say is they generally talk more than I do
But believe it or not, I’m not known to be a very talkative person unless I’m amongst a small group of close friends.
Actually women have two parts in the brain related to speech and men just one. I want to add that recent studies have proven that men usually use about 7 thousand words per day and women 2o thousand so judge for yourself if this is true or not.
Interesting, I wasn’t aware of this, Marriage. It wouldn’t surprise me to see conflicting results with various studies.
It should be that women talk more sense than men
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