Are Women Really (not) More Talkative Than Men? a Registered Report of Binary Gender Similarities/differences in Daily Word Use.

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2025, v. 128, no. 2: Are Women Really (not) More Talkative Than Men? a Registered Report of Binary Gender Similarities/differences in Daily Word Use.
• Journal Article:
  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
• Personal Author:
  Tidwell, Colin A. ; Danvers, Alexander F. ; Pfeifer, Valeria A. ; Abel, Danielle B. ; Alisic, Eva ; Beer, Andrew ; Bierstetel, Sabrina J. ; Bollich-Ziegler, Kathryn L. ; Bruni, Michelle ; Calabrese, William R. ; Chiarello, Christine ; Demiray, Burcu ; Dimidjian, Sona ; Fingerman, Karen L. ; Haas, Maximilian ; Kaplan, Deanna M. ; Kim, Yijung K. ; Knezevic, Goran ; Lazarevic, Ljiljana B. ; Luo, Minxia ; Macbeth, Alessandra ; Manson, Joseph H. ; Mascaro, Jennifer S. ; Metcalf, Christina ; Minor, Kyle S. ; Moseley, Suzanne ; Polsinelli, Angelina J. ; Raison, Charles L. ; Rilling, James K. ; Robbins, Megan L. ; Sbarra, David ; Slatcher, Richard B. ; Sun, Jessie ; Vasileva, Mira ; Vazire, Simine ; Mehl, Matthias R.
• Description:
  Women are widely assumed to be more talkative than men. Challenging this assumption, Mehl et al. (2007) provided empirical evidence that men and women do not differ significantly in their daily word use, speaking about 16,000 words per day (WPD) each. However, concerns were raised that their sample was too small to yield generalizable estimates and too age and context homogeneous to permit inferences beyond college students. This registered report replicated and extended the previous study of binary gender differences in daily word use to address these concerns. Across 2,197 participants (more than five-fold the original sample size), pooled over 22 samples (631,030 ambient audio recordings), men spoke on average 11,950 WPD and women 13,349 WPD, with very large individual differences (< 100 to > 120,000 WPD). The estimated gender difference (1,073 WPD;
  
  = 0.13; 95% CrI 316, 1,824) was about twice as large as in the original study. Smaller differences emerged among adolescent (513 WPD), emerging adult (841 WPD), and older adult (-788 WPD) participants, but a substantially larger difference emerged for participants in early and middle adulthood (3,275 WPD;
  
  = 0.32). Despite the considerable sample size(s), all estimates carried large statistical uncertainty and, except for the gender difference in early and middle adulthood, provide inconclusive evidence regarding whether the two genders ultimately speak a practically equivalent number of WPD, based on the preregistered ± 1,000 WPD regions of practical equivalence criterion. Experienced stress had no meaningful effect on the gender difference, and no clear pattern emerged as to whether the gender difference is accentuated for subjectively rated compared with objectively observed talkativeness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
• Content Notes:
  Author manuscript
• Subjects:
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Male
  • Adult
  • Young Adult
  • Adolescent
  • Middle Aged
  • Sex Factors
  • Aged
  • Speech
  More +
• Keywords:
  • gender stereotypes
  • sex differences
  • lexical budget
  • daily vocabulary
  • replication
• Source:
  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2025, v. 128, no. 2
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000534
• ISSN:
  0022-3514 ; 1939-1315
• Pubmed ID:
  39804347
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11825285
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  R01 AT004698/AT/NCCIH NIH HHSUnited States/ ; John Templeton Foundation/ ; Mind and Life/ ; P2C HD042849/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; American Psychological Foundation/ ; NH/NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 AG046460/AG/NIA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; CC/CDC HHSUnited States/ ; R03 CA137975/CA/NCI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development/ ; P30 AG066614/AG/NIA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 HD069498/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Pages in Document:
  367-391 (46 pdf pages)
• Volume:
  128
• Issue:
  2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/261777/cdc_261777_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.39 MB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a312eaa08f5ccc1b4b0f50335723e291b0053fde3eab90b08c7b2777e2958e3c12a9ba7da66052b381d973e2e691db28d10b47a89bc14a2dfeb37c43abe5c053