Study Finds Women are Not Very Talkative

New research debunks an old myth that women are more talkative than men.

Long conversations, chatting and catching on gossip are seen as behaviors typical among women than in men. A recent study by the Northwestern University found the context and group size plays a huge role in determining the participation of women in discussion and talks. The experts gave a group of men and women 'socio-meters' or devices that measured the amount of time the participants engaged in conversations.

These subjects were split into two groups and placed in two different social settings for nearly 12 hours. The first setting involved individuals with master's degree who were working on a project while, the second setting had call-center employees in a U.S. based banking firm. The participants were allowed to socialize and have any number of talks with the people present in both social settings.

It was observed in the academic setting, women indulged in longer conversations than men. But, when the group size was small and comprised of less than six individuals, men were seen to be more engrossed in talking and chatting. In addition, the study noted women mostly exchanged talks and discussions during lunch breaks sessions in both social settings.

"In the one setting that is more collaborative we see the women choosing to work together, and when you work together you tend to talk more," said David Lazer, study author and professor at the Northwestern University in a news release.

"So it's a very particular scenario that leads to more interactions. The real story here is there's an interplay between the setting and gender which created this difference," he adds.

Studies in the past suggest women are bigger talkers than men and they utter over 20,000 words in a day compared to mere 7,000 words spoken by men. Another research by the University of California holds men can't stop their urge to verbally express opinions about real-life topics and situations then women.  

More information is available online in the journal Scientific Reports.