Do women talk too much ?

Men talk as much as women, study finds

Researchers who had heard that women are the bigger chatterboxes used recorders to document a statistical tie. Members of both sexes speak about 16,000 words a day.
By Amber Dance, Times Staff Writer
July 6, 2007


Listen up, men. The next time you're tempted to call a woman a blabbermouth, you may want to hold your tongue.

It turns out that women and men talk about the same amount — about 16,000 words a day, or 11 words a minute, researchers reported today in the journal Science.

"This was one of these urban myths," said senior author James Pennebaker, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin. "No one knows where this belief even came from, but it's been reported for years."

Upon reading that women are thought to speak 20,000 words a day, and men a mere 7,000, Pennebaker and his colleagues set out to discover the truth.

It was a perfect job for the EAR — the electronically activated recorder — that Pennebaker developed to unobtrusively record snippets of conversation during someone's daily routine. The cellphone-size device turns on every 12 minutes and records whatever it hears for 30 seconds.

The EAR comes in a variety of styles, depending on whether the subject prefers to carry it in a pocket, a purse or clipped to a belt. "Those are for the computer nerds," Pennebaker said.

Earlier attempts to measure the verbosity of the sexes relied on self-reported data from questionnaires or telephone interviews. Digital technology enables scientists to eavesdrop on actual conversations.

The researchers transcribed two to 10 days' worth of recordings from 396 university students in the U.S. and Mexico. After all that typing, they calculated that men average 15,669 words a day, and women utter 16,215. The 546-word difference was considered statistically insignificant.

Dr. Louann Brizendine, author of "The Female Brain," was thrilled to see the persistent stereotype go down.

"What it really means is not that she talks too much," said Brizendine. "It's that he doesn't listen enough!"

Men and women may be equally talkative, but the researchers did find some differences in their conversations. Men tend to talk about things, Pennebaker said, whereas women tend to talk about other people.

So, it seems, you can still call her a gossip

Men talk as much as women, study finds - Los Angeles Times


So , what do u guys think about this finding ?
I always knew it

ye i agree.. where men talk abt football, gals n how big their P***s are... whereas women talk abt imp stuff like life..... so overall it they talk da same amount....

its really a question of priorities

men dont seem to enjoy talking behind ppl's backs as much as their women counterparts

depends on environment arround that or those women.

i was watching tele da other day n a study was carried out an it revealed men gossip more than female.. as in terms of business.. comparing their partners, etc.. so men are more B*****s then women.....

Eita ekta faltu kotha........

Suhdu ki meyera kotha bole naki ?

Chele or meye.,.. 2 tar majhei kichujon kom kotha bole - kichujon besi kotha bole....... ajaira meyeder blame kore lavh ase naki.. hursh

that's not what u call gossip, there's no bad intentions really, so what if men 'compare' significant others, at least they r being honest with each other

women on the other hand are malicious

no bad intentions????? men r best at spreading rumors den females.. which can hurt sm1 deeply.. whether its abt business or sm1s characteristics.. men r more malicious coz dey r more likely to do it in such a way dey not get noticed.. whereas women dnt fear n ave da guts to criticize sm1 in front of dem...


ovi bro ur absolutely rite..... it all equals out....

it depends ...........

Women r more