Life in the Fast Lane

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With so much hype over women’s equality, it’s time for a little male equality, don’t you think?

Now that I have your attention, you may not be as pleased as you thought you’d be. Recent studies reveal men talk just as much as women do. Popular theory would have you believe that women are much more talkative than men, speaking 20,000 words a day, compared to that of the average man’s 7,000. Photo Tranism

But a study being published today in Science magazine debunks that stereotype. According to the new research, both men and women use approximately 16,000 words a day.

“It’s been a common belief, but it just didn’t fit.” says James Pennebaker, chairman of the psychology department at the University of Texas at Austin and co-author of the seven-year study.

Pennebaker and colleagues analyzed recorded conversations of 396 university students between ages 18 – 29 in the USA and Mexico. Researchers calculated word count using an electronically activated recorder that they developed and refined during the study, conducted between 1998 and 2004.

He stated that two-thirds of participants spoke 11,000 to 25,000 words a day, with the average for both sexes around 16,000, reports USA Today.

The finding may seem surprising in a popular culture where women are often stereotyped as talkative and men as uncommunicative.

Recently, neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine cited the 20,000 vs. 7,000 comparison in her 2006 book The Female Brain, as evidence for gender brain differences. The statistic was widely quoted after the book’s release.

“That hit a nerve. It’s been surprising to me that this one little point is the point people pick out.” says Brizendine, director of the Women’s and Teen Girls’ Mood and Hormone Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco.

But experts in neurolinguistics contacted her saying the data was unsubstantiated. The statistic has been cut from newer editions. “That first printing is a collector’s item now.” she says. Photo top E Myl Y, center da V id, bottom Physalia

Mark Liberman, a linguistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said that he tried to track down evidence to support her claim, but failed and posted about it online.

Liberman, who was not involved in Pennebaker’s research, says previous studies have focused on telephone conversations or interview transcripts, rather than recording people’s conversation in the course of their daily lives. “This is the first large-scale study in which the amount of talk was tracked.” he said..

In the new research, study participants spent an average 17 waking hours wearing a lapel microphone attached to a cord linking it to the recording device.

Initial data collection used a tape recorder. As technology progressed, a digital recorder was used, and finally a pocket PC no larger than a cell phone. Participants wore the recorders for designated periods anywhere from two to 10 days. The recorder was programmed to record for 30 seconds every 12.5 minutes, so users didn’t know when it was on or off and couldn’t try to game it.

Liberman says the research clearly disproves the social stereotype.

“Some men are more talkative than others.” he says. “And some women are more talkative than others.”

And there you have it. Can I say a few words here? …

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