Men gab just as much as women, scientists say — I attribute this to the new generation of kids and X-gen men who are chatterboxes. They’ve ruined it for the rest of us.

The long-held assumption that women talk too much – or more than men, anyway — is a modern myth with no factual merit, says a team of researchers who studied the conversational habits of 396 men and women for six years.

Women did speak an average of 546 more words a day than men in the study, results of which will be published in Fridays issue of Science magazine, but that wasnt a statistically significant number. Its certainly a far smaller difference than whats been previously suggested, including an estimate by on UCSF professor that women speak 20,000 words a day to mens 7,000.

In fact, both women and men use roughly 16,000 words a day, according to the latest research.



  1. Mr. Fusion says:

    Some, like Lauren the Ghoti, skew the results so the average is so much greater then otherwise.

  2. bobbo says:

    Well, I was taken aback at the local 4th of July fireworks display last night. First time the park grounds were practically lit up by all the cell phone dial pads. Without exception, all women talking. Almost got distressed while during the display, a young woman 3 seats over had her head down doing some texting. But as she yelled at her mother, first year she wasn’t drunk.

    common observation tells me this study has flaws.

    10,000 cell phones, nothing to say.

  3. David says:

    Riiight. Next you’re going to tell me men spend as much time in the bathroom. Puh-lease.

  4. JimR says:

    Quantum physics of words. Soon as you measure them you skew the results.

  5. GregA says:

    I think if you measure informational content transmitted and received this study is probably correct. Just on the one hand you have more cross-talk, all the extra chatter is the error correcting systems kicking in.

    And you can claim a male oriented web site like this one talks alot.. bot wow, my wife looks at babycenter.com and… just wow… if you think the people here write a lot about nothing…

  6. Arrius says:

    One Word – B___S___

    My wife talks so much it hurts my head at times and getting her around women makes it even worse.

  7. Mister Mustard says:

    I guess it’s a metrosexual thing. Ah, progress.

  8. Angel H. Wong says:

    Some people speak a lot and yet they say nothing.

  9. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    I don’t know… I talk a lot…

    And I’m not a misogynist (which makes me wonder why I’m allowed to post here) so maybe the study is right…

  10. mark says:

    #1. Understatement of the year.

    #8. See number 1.

  11. Podcast listener says:

    All you have to do is listen to Leo Laporte, Dvorak, Steve Gibson, Paul Thurrott and others go on and on in their podcasts to see that there might be some truth in this article.

  12. Oh for the love of..get off your high horse. Nobody here is a misogynist. So you think that pics of all the bikini glad babes makes the group women-haters? Cripes!!!

  13. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    #12 – No… Those pics make you shallow and superficial. It’s all the misogynist statements made on the site that makes it misogynistic…

    (you know… of all the people I thought would rise up to attack that jab, I didn’t think it would be you) 😉

  14. SN says:

    13. “Those pics make you shallow and superficial.”

    Actually, I’m the one who posted them, so I’m shallow and superficial. (Along with the 20 people who chimed in approvingly!) John probably rolled his eyes and wondered why he ever let me be an editor here.

  15. bobbo says:

    “Nobody here is a misogynist. ”

    misogynist.: A misanthrope who dislikes women in particular

    I might be a misogynist. Not by choice, but on sober reflection. It turns on how one interprets the definition. I think I love and have loved several specific women but man, get a bunch of wimen together, and I find the aggragate clucking a bit hard to take.

    Oh, there it is, I dislike wimen, not women. Whew, that was close.

  16. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    #14 – Oh jeez… I’m just giving you a hard time…

    I honestly do not believe John or you to be shallow or misogynistic… and I think probably fewer than 35% of the other posters to be so… Which is in keeping with what I bet the national average probably is (for misogyny , shallowness is higher). Not that we’ll ever know because who would check the survey box that reads “I hate women.”?

    Especially when they are so soft and cuddly…

  17. Angel H. Wong says:

    You have a valid reason to be a misoginist if in the 80s you were a middle class kid and your older sisters were in their late teens/early 20s.

  18. cool tidbits says:

    When I saw the title of the post, I thought we were talking about this.
    http://imdb.com/title/tt0075830/

  19. knights_templar700 says:

    In Manhattan I see women ALWAYS talking in public. If it’s not with their companions then it is with their cellphones. Mean while on the subway they are plugged into their iPods or checking their PDA messages. I wouldn’t be surprised if a newborn baby comes into the world with a cellphone clutched in her hand.

    As for me I type more in a day than I talk in a week.

  20. stew says:

    It is those right wing radio talk people running up the numbers. Probably Bushs fault.


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