Do women talk more than men? It might depend on one key factor
The stereotype that women are much more talkative than men is pervasive across many cultures. Scotland is a chatty nation, but we perhaps never think about who talks more - the lads or the lasses.
Husbands may joke that their wives never stop yapping, while wives may complain that their husbands are never done gabbing away to their pals about sport, work, or family life.
Either way, when all is said, quite literally, and done, it poses the question as to who chews the ear off people more. Luckily, researchers at University of Arizona explored the question, and what they came back with is fascinating.
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"There is a strong cross-cultural assumption that women talk a lot more than men," said co-lead study author Colin Tidwell. "We wanted to see whether or not this assumption holds when empirically tested."
Researchers found that women between the ages of 25 and 65 spoke on average about 3,000 more words per day than their male counterparts. Significant gender differences did not appear in the study's other age groups: adolescence (ages 10 to 17), emerging adulthood (ages 18 to 24) and older adulthood (65 and up).
The researchers also discovered that people in general might be becoming less talkative, perhaps due to a reliance on texting, instant messaging, and social media.
Researchers tested the stereotype that women speak more than men by analysing data from 630,000 EAR recordings from 22 separate studies conducted in four countries, with participants ranging from 10-94 years old.
EAR stands for Electronically Activated Recorder, which turns on at random intervals to capture snippets of daily conversations. Using those audio files, researchers developed estimates for the number of words spoken by a person per day. The study included 2,197 individuals.
A significant gender difference only emerged for one age group - those 25-64. While women in the early to middle adulthood age group spoke 21,845 words a day on average, men spoke 18,570.
The researchers don't know for sure why women are the more talkative gender during the near-40-year stretch of adulthood, but they say one possibility is that those tend to be the child-rearing years, and women, who often assume the role of primary caregiver, might be speaking more than men to their children during that time.
In another dramatic twist, researchers found that the average number of words spoken per day appears to have dropped. From 2005-2018, the average number of words spoken per day fell from about 16,000 to about 13,000. "Three hundred spoken words on average per year go missing," said study co-lead author Pfeifer.
There is no explanation for the drop, but a rise in texting and social media are likely part of the equation. In short, the study suggests that women may be the chattier gender, but only during a certain period of life.
