In 2007 the psychologist Matthias Mehl and his team from the University of Arizona made a study widely disclosed that refuted the stereotype that women are more communicative than men. According to their conclusions, both genres spoke about the same amount of words Throughout the day, about 16,000 on average. However, one new investigationentitled Are women (or not) more communicative than men? A registered report on similarities and gender binary differences in the daily use of words, And that has been published in the magazine Journal of Personality and Social Psychologychallenges that conclusion, suggesting that Women do speak morebut only during a specific period of life: Between 25 and 65 years. During this period, women pronounce around 3,000 words more a day than men, according to the data collected by researchers at the University of Arizona.
The new study, led by Colin Tidwell Analyzes the conversations of thousands of people, unlike the 2007 study, which focused on a limited sample of university students. In addition, in this research the spectrum expands, including participants of various ages and cultural contexts. The results showed that women in the age group of 25 to 65 spoke, on average, some 3,000 words more than its male counterparts. However, no significant differences were observed in other age groups, such as adolescents (from 10 to 17 years old), young adults (from 18 to 24 years old) or older adults (65 years and older).
The differences found in research
As people move on to other stages of life, differences in the amount of spoken words fader. In this sense, the study suggests that women could be more communicative during early and a half adulthood, a phase in which many women assume active roles of care, such as mothers or main caregivers. This could explain the increase in the number of verbal interactions, since women tend to talk more with their children and other close relatives.
The study also highlights that women between 25 and 64 years pronounce an average of 21,845 words a daywhile the men of the same age strip speak 18,570. Despite this finding, researchers do not claim that the gender is the only determining factor. “If biological factors such as hormones were the main cause of these differences, we should also have seen a considerable difference among young adults,” says Mehl, who also participated in the study. This statement suggests that social factors, rather than biological, could be the main responsible for the differences in the number of spoken words.
Several research approaches
This new research expands and deepens the previous findings of Mehl. Using a portable recording device known as EAR (Electronically activated recorder), MEHL compiled data from 500 participants, both men and women, and discovered that there were no significant differences in the amount of words spoken between genres. This finding surprised the public, since it contradicted a widely accepted stereotype, but was also criticized due to the limitations of the study, such as the fact that most participants were university students in a single city, Austin, Texas.
These studies are added to previous investigations that have also examined the differences in gender communication, although with different approaches. In 1990Deborah Tannen linguist published You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men In Conversationin which he argued that it was not only the amount of words, but of the communication styles.
Tannen observed that women tend to adopt a more collaborative and relationship -oriented conversation style, while men are usually more direct and competitive. Although it did not focus on the exact number of words, Tannen’s theory contributed to understanding how genres communicated in different ways.

The number of words varies according to the communication channel
With the arrival of the digital age, studies on social networks have also yielded interesting results. An analysis by Shannon McGregor and Deen Freelon In 2011 on the use of Twitter (now x) he found that, although women are usually more expressive and emotional in their publications, they are not necessarily more verbal than men on digital platforms. The investigation showed how different communication platforms They can modify the ways in which genres interact, suggesting that the characteristics of the environment also play an important role.
In parallel, research on Communication in childhood and adolescence They have shown that girls tend to be more verbal than boys, but with a different approach. A study published in Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology In 2009 he revealed that girls, in general, use a more social and emotional language, while boys tend to focus more on activities and games. As they grow, however, these differences decrease, especially in adolescence, which shows that variations in communication are also influenced by the social and cultural environment.
Although there are many investigations that have been carried out and whose results vary according to the communication channel and the vital stage, the recent study led by Tidwell, with a sample of 2,197 people of different ages and cultural origins, highlights that communication differences They are not universal or permanent, but depend on specific factors, such as age and social context.
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