One of the most common myths in modern society is that women talk more than men.
But is this really true? Scientists have tried to find the answer. And it clearly does not correspond to the stereotype.
By the way, back in 2007 a study was conducted which showed that men and women pronounce approximately the same number of words per day – 16 thousand.
The landmark study was criticized for its small sample size (396 people participated in the study) and its monotony.
New research
Recently, scientists from the University of Arizona decided to expand the study - they examined data from 22 samples for the period from 2005 to 2019.
Regional coverage: USA, Australia, Serbia and Switzerland.
Number of participants: 2,197 people aged 10 to 94 years.
To measure the level of talkativeness, an audio recorder was used to periodically record surrounding sounds throughout the day.
Using this method, scientists were able to record the natural speech of participants without distortions caused by subjective assessments.
A total of 631,030 recordings were obtained and analyzed, taking into account the recording duration and the number of hours in a waking state (for the accuracy of the results).
Results
The study found that women speak 1,073 more words per day than men (13,349 and 11,950, respectively).
But because there is "large individual variability," the scientists say the difference cannot clearly indicate that women are superior in talkativeness.
For example, if among teenagers the difference was only 513 words (in favor of girls), then among young people (from 18 to 24 years old) it was already 841 words.
An even more significant difference was recorded among people aged 25 to 64 years – women at this age spoke on average 3,275 words more than men.
But among older citizens (aged 65 and over), men were the most talkative – they spoke an average of 788 words more than women.
