We’re going to spare you a wordy exposition and cut to the chase in a manly fashion: on average, men and women do pretty equal amounts of talking. However, men tend to talk more in big groups, and women tend to dominate one-on-one encounters.
This comes courtesy of a study published in Scientific Reports. One of the study’s authors, Dr. David Lazer, developed a wearable device called a sociometer, which recorded real-time data about his subject’s social interactions. Researchers fitted the devices to seventy-nine students and fifty-four call centre employees. When subjects had to collaborate with groups of six or more people, men tended to dominate the conversation. On the other hand, women were 62% more talkative than men when only dealing with one or two people.
According to Lazer, “The real story here is there’s interplay between the setting and gender which created this difference.”
So there you go. When it’s just you and your girlfriend, she’s likely to be speaking for both of you. But when your buddies swing by, she can’t get a word in edgewise. That’s why everyone’s upset all the time!
