Are Women Really More Talkative Than Men?
- Matthias R. Mehl1,*,
- Simine Vazire2,
- Nairán Ramírez-Esparza3,
- Richard B. Slatcher3,
- James W. Pennebaker3
- 1 Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
- 2 Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
- 3 Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
- ↵* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mehl{at}email.arizona.edu
Abstract
Women are generally assumed to be more talkative than men. Data were analyzed from 396 participants who wore a voice recorder that sampled ambient sounds for several days. Participants' daily word use was extrapolated from the number of recorded words. Women and men both spoke about 16,000 words per day.
- Received for publication 16 January 2007.
- Accepted for publication 3 April 2007.
