Women are non-stop chatterbox, while men are close-mouthed; women are garrulous, men are laconic; women talk non-sense, men make all the sense; women keep beating around the bush, men directly hit at the main point; women are voluble and verbose, men are reticent and reserved; words just won’t stop rolling out from women’s tongue, while men remain tight lipped… Please gimme a break! Time now to put up a big full stop on all these erroneous urban myths.
A study reveals that men and women are equal competitors in chatting. US researchers tracked the conversational habits of almost 400 US and Mexican students in real time, and discovered that both sexes run their mouths at a remarkably similar rate over the course of a day, even if they tend to talk about different subjects.
“The widespread and highly publicized stereotype about female talkativeness and male reticence is unfounded,” said Mathias Mehl, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Arizona and lead author of the paper.
Mehl and a group of psychologists from the University of Texas at Austin measured a sample of the daily chit-chat of six groups of students who recorded their every word for periods that ranged from two to 10 days. The team calculated how many words each participant spoke in total in a 17-hour period.
The results showed that while the women got through an average of 16,215 words, the men were no slouches, with a daily average of 15,669 – an amazing shift in the previously perceived statistical terms.
And why not! When it comes to blabbing no sex is less than the other. If women in a group gossip, then men gabble about gadgets. If women talk about facials and bleaching, men too crazily discuss about trendy bikes and latest cars. If women are busy criticizing each other’s looks, men too are equally engaged in examining and conversing about the beauty of women.
Another eye-opening evidence further cements this survey. Singer Toby Keith’s hit song “I wanna talk about me,” in which he pleads with his girlfriend to shut up for a minute so he can get a word in. “We talk about your skin and the dimples on your chin/The polish on your toes and the run in your hose/But every once in a while/I wanna talk about me,” he says plaintively.
Lets hope that this study will finally be able to wipe off this age-old stereotype of females’ excessive and incessant talkativeness.