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It鈥檚 probably one of the oldest gags in the book. A husband browsing through the newspaper finds an article saying that women use far more words than men. He gleefully points this out to his wife. 鈥淟isten to this 鈥� it says here that men use about 15,000 words a day, but women use 30,000.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 because we have to repeat everything we say,鈥� she replies. 鈥淲hat?鈥� says the man.

It鈥檚 a deeply ingrained perception 鈥� women talk more than men, right? But two recent studies have knocked this myth on the head. The first study was provoked by a 2006 book called The Female Brain, by neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine. The first edition claimed that a woman says about 20,000 words per day while a man utters only about 7000.

Bizarre

This sounded bizarre to Matthias Mehl, a psychologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson. His team had recorded college students鈥� everyday speech between 1998 and 2004 as part of a project to understand the influence of talking on emotional health.

Hundreds of students had worn digital devices that recorded 30 seconds of sound every 12.5 minutes. If women talked three times as much as men, they would have noticed, Mehl says. 鈥淲e knew there just couldn鈥檛 be such a big difference.鈥�

So his team analysed archived recordings of 210 women and 186 men. They estimate the women spoke on average 16,215 words per day while the men said 15,669 words 鈥� not a statistically significant difference, they reported in July (). 鈥淲e were surprised that there was essentially no difference whatsoever,鈥� says Mehl. 鈥淚 suppose we were also susceptible to the stereotype, so we thought it would go slightly in favour of the women.鈥�

Their conclusion, however, has plenty of support. Campbell Leaper and Melanie Ayres of the University of California, Santa Cruz, recently combined the results from more than 60 earlier studies that measured talkativeness in adults of various ages. They reported in November that the men were actually more talkative than the women in general, although the difference was very slight (). 鈥淏asically, there鈥檚 no meaningful difference,鈥� says Leaper.

Sex differences

So why have we so wholeheartedly bought the stereotype? 鈥淭o a large extent, it鈥檚 probably sexism,鈥� says Leaper. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a way of disparaging women鈥檚 contributions. The implied assumption is that they鈥檙e talking, but what they say doesn鈥檛 matter.鈥� He adds that it鈥檚 common to exaggerate gender differences to reinforce our group identities, hence the popularity of books like Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.

It doesn鈥檛 help that the myth of the mouthy woman has been stated as fact in several books, not just Brizendine鈥檚, and is often repeated in the media. Mark Liberman, a linguist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, has been noting instances of what he calls the 鈥渟ex-linked word-budget meme鈥� on his Language Log blog. These put the daily male word quota at anywhere from 2000 to 25,000 words and the female allowance between 7000 and 50,000. Needless to say, none cites scientific sources.

Curious theories

Liberman suspects that a marriage counsellor started the meme about 15 years ago as a parable that might help couples with communication problems, and others have parroted it ever since. Some books even elaborate with curious theories, such as Why Men Don鈥檛 Listen and Women Can鈥檛 Read Maps by Allan and Barbara Pease, which has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide:

鈥淚talian women are the top talkers speaking up to 6000-8000 words a day. They use an additional 2000-3000 vocal sounds to communicate, as well as 8000-10,000 gestures, facial expressions, head movements and other body signals. This gives these women a daily average of more than 20,000 communication 鈥榳ords鈥� to relate their messages. Western women speak up to 80 per cent of that figure. That explains just why the British Medical Association recently reported that women are four times more likely to suffer with jaw problems.鈥�

鈥淚t explains a report that women are four times more likely to suffer jaw problems鈥�

It seems we just can鈥檛 get enough of this stuff. The Peases followed up their lucrative bestseller with Why Men Don鈥檛 Have a Clue and Women Always Need More Shoes, which aims to answer such pressing questions as: 鈥淲hy don鈥檛 women ever get to the point?鈥�

Hogging the conversation

In a 2004 interview with CNN, Allan Pease explained why men are supposedly reticent at night. 鈥淲omen can speak 20,000 to 24,000 words a day versus a man鈥檚 top end of 7000 to 10,000. And where this becomes apparent is at the early evening when you鈥檙e having dinner, because most men have done their 10,000, right? She might still have 15,000 to go, and someone鈥檚 got to hear them.鈥� This bizarre notion, that people wake up with a woman-sized or man-sized 鈥渨ord tank鈥� that must be emptied by the end of the day, now seems to be spreading too.

Whatever the origins of the gabbling-female stereotype, it seems we鈥檙e not all ready to give it up. After Mehl鈥檚 study was reported in the press, his email inbox filled up with complaints from irate men. 鈥淚 was really surprised by the emotional reactions that I got,鈥� says Mehl. Typical comments were: 鈥淲hat a bogus study 鈥� not only do women talk more than men, they use 10 times as many words to get a point across鈥� and 鈥淭his is horrible news 鈥� I hope my wife doesn鈥檛 read this, because I鈥檒l never hear the last of it.鈥�

While women do not talk more, there are some more subtle gender differences. As well as measuring overall talkativeness, Leaper and Ayres reviewed studies that took account of the context 鈥� what men and women were saying and who they were talking with.

Asserting dominance

While men talked slightly more than women in mixed groups, men and women were equally talkative in same-gender groups. Leaper puts that down to situational pressure. In mixed groups, status differences come into the picture and men may try to assert their dominance by hogging the conversation.

Other differences suggest we鈥檙e keen to adhere to social norms in same-sex groups. Groups of women tended to use more 鈥渁ffiliative speech鈥� 鈥� language that demonstrates support, agreement or bonding. Male groups, on the other hand, were more likely to use assertive speech 鈥� giving instructions, for instance, or being critical.

And Mehl鈥檚 recordings prove that some good old-fashioned stereotypes are firmly rooted in fact. 鈥淲omen tend to talk more about fashion and relationships, while men talk more about sport, entertainment and money,鈥� he says. Women do spend more time on the phone. And men use about five or six times as many swear words as women.

What intrigues Mehl most of all, though, is not the differences between the sexes 鈥� which are typically trivial 鈥� but the astonishingly huge variation among people in general. 鈥淲e have huge individual differences, which is fascinating,鈥� he says. 鈥淚n our study, the least talkative person talked 700 words a day and the most talkative person said 47,000 words.鈥� That last is a staggering 50 words for every waking minute of the day.

And just for the record, the motormouths who won first, second and third prize were all 鈥� you guessed it 鈥� men.