Everyone knows that women talk more than men.
What if it’s not true? Is this one of the myths we believe in?
A psychologist at the University of Arizona, assisted by several colleagues and probably a number of students from master’s studies made an experiment. Yes, he listened to the daily conversations of 400 students.
The students were equipped with devices that activated every 12 and a half minutes and recorded 30 seconds of the call (for whom it happens to communicate exactly then). The students agreed to have their privacy violated in this way (for the good of science and, especially, of couple relationships)
The results are amazing:
Women and men, on average, use 16,000 words a day.
It means that women don’t talk more than men? Apparently not, at least according to this study. Think the same? Not at all! Do we talk the same way? No, not even that! But it is proven to talk just as much.
Mehl, Matthias et al.,2007, Are women really more talkative than men?, Science, 317, 82.