Yakity yak, don't talk back .....

[xoxoxoBruce]

From an article in the Daily Mail....

Women talk three times as much as men, says study
It is something one half of the population has long suspected - and the other half always vocally denied. Women really do talk more than men.
In fact, women talk almost three times as much as men, with the average woman chalking up 20,000 words in a day - 13,000 more than the average man.
Women also speak more quickly, devote more brainpower to chit-chat - and actually get a buzz out of hearing their own voices, a new book suggests.

The book - written by a female psychiatrist - says that inherent differences between the male and female brain explain why women are naturally more talkative than men.
In The Female Mind, Dr Luan Brizendine says women devote more brain cells to talking than men.
And, if that wasn't enough, the simple act of talking triggers a flood of brain chemicals which give women a rush similar to that felt by heroin addicts when they get a high.

Dr Brizendine, a self-proclaimed feminist, says the differences can be traced back to the womb, where the sex hormone testosterone moulds the developing male brain.
The areas responsible for communication, emotion and memory are all pared back the unborn baby boy.
The result is that boys - and men - chat less than their female counterparts and struggle to express their emotions to the same extent.
"Women have an eight-lane superhighway for processing emotion, while men have a small country road," said Dr Brizendine, who runs a female "mood and hormone" clinic in San Francisco.

There are, however, advantages to being the strong, silent type. Dr Brizendine explains that testosterone also reduces the size of the section of the brain involved in hearing - allowing men to become "deaf" to the most logical of arguments put forward by their wives and girlfriends.
But what the male brain may lack in conversation and emotion, they more than make up with in their ability to think about sex.

Dr Brizendine says the brain's "sex processor" - the areas responsible for sexual thoughts - is twice as big as in men than in women, perhaps explaining why men are stereotyped as having sex on the mind.
Or, to put it another way, men have an international airport for dealing with thoughts about sex, "where women have an airfield nearby that lands small and private planes".
Studies have shown that while a man will think about sex every 52 seconds, the subject tends to cross women's minds just once a day, the University of California psychiatrist says.

Dr Brizendine, whose book is based on her own clinical work and analysis of more than 1,000 scientific studies, added: "There is no unisex brain.
"Girls arrive already wired as girls, and boys arrive already wired as boys. Their brains are different by the time they're born, and their brains are what drive their impulses, values and their very reality.
"I know it is not politically correct to say this but I've been torn for years between my politics and what science is telling us.
"I believe women actually perceive the world differently from men.
"If women attend to those differences they can make better decisions about how to manage their lives."

Other scientists, however, are skeptical about the effects of testosterone on the brain and say many of the differences between the male and female personality can be explained by social conditioning, with a child's upbringing greatly influencing their character.
Deborah Cameron, an Oxford University linguistics professor with a special interest in language and gender, said the amount we talk is influenced by who we are with and what we are doing.
She added: "If you aggregate a large number of studies you will find there is little difference between the amount men and women talk."

I think she's right..... women, in the same situation, do talk more. That's probably why they excel in jobs requiring communication.


and can't wait till half-time.

[Trilby]

So?

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by Brianna

So?

Excellent, Bri!

[Spexxvet]

Shaddup already!:p

[Shawnee123]

Damn yakin' ass yakin' women!

[Pie]

Nature or nurture?

Someone actually thought they had to study this to get to this outcome?
Coming up, a study to see if trees grow! Hold your breath for results.

[Hippikos]

[DanaC]

I saw quite a good article refuting the findings of this study. How much one converses seems to have much more to do with the social grouping and culture one grew up in.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I'd like to read that, Dana.

[DanaC]

Unfortunately it's taken from a book of essays I read for the linguistics component of my adult literacy subject support course: The linguist cited in the Telegraph's coverage of the 'Women talk more than Men' article is the one who wrote the book. In the telegraph they end their article about the new findings with :

Other scientists, however, are sceptical about the effects of testosterone on the brain.

Deborah Cameron, an Oxford University linguistics professor, said the amount we talk is influenced by the social environment we live in.

In her book Deborah discusses the communication and linguistic styles and features of men and women. The conclusion being that we communicate differently. But in terms of quantity the differences are more influenced by other factors. What differs across the genders is style and format, more than quantity.

The idea that there is proof of women talking more than men, isn't really that new. It's been floated before. Which is why there is quite a lot of material out there refuting it :P

[bluecuracao]

I'm a bit skeptical about that study...most of the males in my life talk WAY more than I or any other females I know do. However,

actually get a buzz out of hearing their own voices

I wonder if this is why *everyone* gets real chatty when they're drunk--makes the buzz stronger, maybe?

[DanaC]

Hmm. That's a possibility. Also, drugs that give a buzz, like amphetamines and cocaine tend to make one very very chatty.....I wonder if talking and feeling high are somehow linked ?

One of my pain meds makes me talkative.

[DanaC]

What does it have in it?