Yes, women talk more than men do. A research team from the University of Arizona has found evidence for the generally accepted truth. However, it only applies to women between the ages of 25 and 65. On average, they use 3,000 more words per day than their male counterparts of the same age.
The researchers have analyzed 630,000 recordings from 22 different studies from four countries. The material covers 2,194 people between the ages of ten and 94. The result has been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Talking to Children
Why women between the ages of 25 and 65 talk more than men is something the researchers do not have a good answer to – yet. One theory is that it has to do with the years when the children are growing up. Since women are often the ones with primary responsibility for the children, the explanation may be that they talk more with their children during that time.
Even though women during a certain period are more talkative than men, there are also large individual differences. The most taciturn person in the study – a man – used an average of 100 words per day, while the biggest chatterbox – also a man – spouted out over 120,000 words every day.
Talking Less
When looking at the group as a whole, it also became clear that we are talking less and less. The number of spoken words per day decreased between 2005 and 2018 from around 16,000 to around 13,000. On average, 300 words per year have disappeared.
What the reason is has not yet been investigated, but there is a prime suspect – increased digital communication.
