© Shutterstock

Broad stereotype -

The stereotype that women talk more than men is broad and cross-cultural. For years, people have believed that women are simply chattier.

© Getty Images

Original study -

In 2007, a study from the University of Arizona debunked that myth, finding that men and women both speak around 16,000 words daily.

© Shutterstock

New study -

In 2025, however, a new study has revealed that there may be some truth to the "women talk more" stereotype, albeit in a more nuanced way than we once thought.

© Shutterstock

Nuance -

Indeed, according to this recent study, women do seem to talk more than men, but only during a certain period of their life.

© Shutterstock

The 2007 study -

Let's take a quick look at the evidence provided by the 2007 study, which was led by the University of Arizona psychologist, Matthias Mehl.

© Shutterstock

Number of participants - The study looked at a group of 500 participants, all of whom were asked to wear a device called the EAR (electronically activated recorder).

© Shutterstock

The EAR device -

The role of the EAR device was to randomly record snippets of the participants’ conversations.

© Shutterstock

Published findings -

The findings of the 2007 study were published in Science journal. They were considered significant as they debunked the idea that women talk more than men.

© Shutterstock

Limitations of the study -

However, the 2007 study was limited in two key ways. Firstly, the vast majority of participants in the study were college-aged.

© Shutterstock

Not representative -

Secondly, the vast majority of the study participants also lived in Texas. Overall, therefore, the study was not representative of the general population.

© Shutterstock

The more recent study -

The main aim of the more recent study, also led by Matthias Mehl and his team, was to collect data that is more representative of the general population.

© Shutterstock

Broader sample -

The new study therefore looked at 630,000 EAR recordings from 22 different studies conducted in four different countries.

© Shutterstock

Comparing numbers -

The study included data from 2,197 participants aged between 10 and 94. It was four times bigger than the original study.

© Shutterstock

Findings -

The new study found that across most age groups, men and women speak roughly the same number of words per day.

© Shutterstock

Age group-specific -

However, results also showed that between the ages of 25 and 64, women appear to say more words each day than their male counterparts.

© Shutterstock

Direct comparison -

Indeed, the average number of words daily for women in this age group was 21,845, while for the men it was just 18,570.

© Shutterstock

Far ends of the spectrum -

This difference of roughly 3,000 words per day was not seen in age groups at either end of the range (younger than 25 or older than 64).

© Shutterstock

Explaining the results -

In interpreting their results, researchers have speculated about why women may talk more than men during middle adulthood.

© Shutterstock

The role of care-giving -

One theory is that women may converse more than men during these years because they tend to take on more of the caregiving roles.

© Shutterstock

More verbal interaction -

The idea is that by taking on the role of primary caregiver, women may engage in more verbal interactions with children.

© Shutterstock

Only a theory -

This is one potential explanation offered by Mehl in an attempt to explain the data. However, experts are not sure whether it has any merit.

© Shutterstock

Unexplained trend -

In fact, the trend in the data is currently unexplained; researchers have also ruled out biological and generational differences.

© Shutterstock

Ruling out hormones as a factor - Indeed, if hormones were to play a role, the data would likely show gender differences in adolescence as well as adulthood.

© Shutterstock

Ruling out social changes as a factor -

Moreover, if social changes were the cause, the data would be expected to show a steady increase in differences among older participants. This was not the case.

© Shutterstock

Going forward -

Further research will be required to consolidate the results of this study and shed light on why women appear to talk more than men during mid-life.

© Shutterstock

Other learnings -

However, it is important to note that the data from this study also revealed another interesting trend: people seem to be talking less in general.

© Shutterstock

Overall numbers are down -

Indeed, when looking at data from the full range of participants, researchers found that the number of words spoken daily has decreased over the years.

© Shutterstock

2005-2018 -

Between 2005 and 2018 (the time period during which the data were collected) the average number of words spoken per day fell from roughly 18,000 to roughly 13,000.

© Shutterstock

The role of digital communication -

Researchers have speculated that this drop in talkativeness may be related to the ubiquitous rise in digital communication.

© Shutterstock

Social media as a factor -

Indeed, as people rely more and more on social media to communicate with one another, there is less need to verbalize what we are thinking and feeling.

Sources: (Interesting Engineering) (Phys Org)

See also: Famous parents raising their kids without gender stereotypes

© Shutterstock