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They just talk, talk, talk all the time. It's maddening, I'm trying to watch TV and they
just start gabbing and chattering. Does this sound familiar? Welp, it's your fault.
Hey ladies and gentlemen, Trace here for DNews with more interesting science. Listening to
that introduction, did you think I was talking about a woman? Or a man? To be honest, the
answer doesn't REALLY matter, but the stereotype is real -- the stereotype is that women talk
more. They're Chatty Cathys, Gossip Girls and Miss Chatterboxes, but science says this
stereotype is NOT TRUE! And yet, when researchers found the answer, it kind of makes you go…
Oh. That makes sense.
Who talks more has been studied for years by scientists, and from various angles. Scientists
have looked at the number of words used per day, time spent talking, who takes more turns
talking and even whether one group is BETTER at language than the other. Dozens of different
studies have tried to answer this silly stereotype -- who talks more, and why… And it turns
out by most measures -- men and women talk the same amount.
In 2004[a]: the American Psychological Association took the results of 73 different studies of
children, and found that boys and girls talk about the same -- though girl's language skills
tended to develop more quickly. In 2007[b]: The University of Texas at Austin
found both men and women in the US and Mexico use an average of about 16,000 words per day.
While another study from University of California[c] found men talked a little bit more.
And in 2008[d]: A study in Neuropsychologia found that YES, the brains of girls process
words better than the brains of boys -- and now a 2014 study took the research to a new
level. They added the element of CONTEXT.
Boom. Mind blown, right? Of COURSE where you are is going to change what you talk about,
and how much you have to say. Right now, at this moment, I'm probably talking more than
you -- but that doesn't mean I'm more chatty overall!
The study, published in Scientific Reports, gave two groups of people "sociometers," which
are wearable, cellphone-sized devices that can measure real-time social interaction data.
One group was male and female master's students, the other were workers at a call center. The
group of master's students were asked to grade a project in 12 hours, and they talked A LOT.
While the group at the call center were in a lunch-room on break -- and thus talked only
a little.
For the masters students women tended to have longer conversations with other women, but
overall, communication was similar. And in the lunchroom it was virtually equal in all
respects.
And, you can break this down even further. In groups of less than six people, the female
master's students talked more, but in groups of MORE than six the males talked more, but
when there were no groups built by the participants, there was, Quote, "No detectable difference
in talkativeness between men and women. Perhaps this indicates some kind of bias in the way
we structure our group communication? More research is needed there, but can we PLEASE
put to rest the "women talk all the time" crap. It's simply not true.
Now, if you're mad because your friend is talking during the Big Game, or The New Girl
or Orange is the New Black -- that's different. That's just your friend and you having to
deal wit some things.
So who does most of the gabbing in your social group, the guys or the ladies?
Why do you think people talk while you're watching something? (<-- dumb)
Tell us below in the comments and subscribe for more DNews. If you're like me and you
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