Awhile ago I wrote about gender equality on talkativeness. It seems that the debate lingers on, with a new meta-analysis of gender differences in talkativeness published in this month’s Personality and Social Psychology Review. This time researchers looked at 70 different samples (all from various peer-reviewed published articles) with a total of 4,385 participants and found contrary to their predictions, on average men were significantly more talkative than women. Now these differences were small, so overall the genders are generally quite similar, but some interesting patterns still emerged. Type of group (e.g., men were found to be more talkative with spouses or partners and strangers and in mixed-gender situations; women with classmates or as parents with children), group size (e.g., men were more talkative one on one than in a group), and activity all played a part in who talked more. Follow-up analysis revealed that the type of speech also made a difference: women were more likely to use affiliative speech, and men were more likely to use assertive speech (a small but significant difference). Affiliative speech refers to speech that affirms or positively engages with another person. Examples of this style include showing support, empathy, agreement, or acknowledgment. Assertive speech functions to advance one’s position- such as giving information, directive statements, and disagreeing with or criticizing contributions. How does this relate to your own verbal style? Do these slight but significant gender differences explain your style? Do you have a tendency to use different styles when at work, or at home, or on a date? What about when speaking with one gender versus another? Or when when trying to persuade a group to accomplish a specific goal? Take notice this week and hear how these different styles are present in your surroundings.

Further Reading:

Leaper, C, Ayres, M (2007). A meta-analytic review of gender variations in adults’ language use: Talkativeness, affiliative speech, and assertive speech. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11, 328-363.