To test the conventional wisdom that women talk three times as much as men, University of Arizona psychologists analyzed the daily conversations of 396 college students.
Their surprising results: women used an average of 16,215 words per day, with men chiming in at 15,669 -- a non-statistically significant difference of 546 words.
The findings cast into doubt the oft-repeated assertion, made in psychiatrist and pop-science author Louann Brizendine's bestselling The Female Brain, that women use 20,000 words per day and men just seven thousand.
Of course, there's a danger that the findings of this study -- the first of its kind, based on college students and not representative of all ages and cultures -- could become a stereotype itself. But even if they're not the final word, they certainly add welcome balance to an old debate.
(Get it? The final word! Next suggested study: do science journalists have really bad senses of humor, or is it just me?)
Study: Women Don't Talk More Than Guys [Associated Press]
Are Women Really More Talkative Than Men? [Science]
Image: Scott Raymond*
