Posted: Mar 07, 2010 11:05 am
"Gender Differences in Verbal Ability: A Meta-Analysis"
Even though women are usually seen to be much more talkative than men or more capable of communicating (a 'fact' which tends to be followed by the claim that women speak roughly 22,000 words per day versus the man's 7,000) appears to be a purely fabricated myth. A few years ago, Mark Liberman (the author of the blog "Language Log") tried to track down the source of this myth and he thinks he may have found where it originated..
In his blog he discusses the different way this myth is presented; varying numbers, multiple references, etc. But one of the interesting things he kept discovering was this idea of a "Lexical Budget" - that is, the differences between the language use of males and females is not simply one of averages (assuming the difference exists), but there are actual upper limits as to how many words each can speak per day. An interesting example of how this is supposed to impact our daily life is presented in his blog:
Anyway, has anyone come across any good evidence for or against the idea of sex differences in language? Or have they read any interesting myths or studies either looking at "lexical budgets" or some other equally absurd ideas?
(Discussed in a bit more detail here).Many regard gender differences in verbal ability to be one of the well-established findings in psychology. To reassess this belief, we located 165 studies that reported data on gender differences in verbal ability. The weighted mean effect size (d) was +0.11, indicating a slight female superiority in performance. The difference is so small that we argue that gender differences in verbal ability no longer exist. Analyses of effect sizes for different measures of verbal ability showed almost all to be small in magnitude: for vocabulary, d = 0.02; for analogies, d = −0.16 (slight male superiority in performance); for reading comprehension, d = 0.03; for speech production, d = 0.33 (the largest effect size); for essay writing, d = 0.09; for anagrams, d = 0.22; and for tests of general verbal ability, d = 0.20. For the 1985 administration of the Scholastic Aptitude Test-Verbal, d = −0.11, indicating superior male performance. Analysis of tests requiring different cognitive processes involved in verbal ability yielded no evidence of substantial gender differences in any aspect of processing. Similarly, an analysis by age indicated no striking changes in the magnitude of gender differences at different ages, countering Maccoby and Jacklin's (1974) conclusion that gender differences in verbal ability emerge around age 11. For studies published in 1973 or earlier, d = 0.23 and for studies published after 1973, d = 0.10, indicating a slight decline in the magnitude of the gender difference in recent years.
Even though women are usually seen to be much more talkative than men or more capable of communicating (a 'fact' which tends to be followed by the claim that women speak roughly 22,000 words per day versus the man's 7,000) appears to be a purely fabricated myth. A few years ago, Mark Liberman (the author of the blog "Language Log") tried to track down the source of this myth and he thinks he may have found where it originated..
Mark Liberman wrote:This morning, I spent a fruitless hour trying to track down the source of Louann Brizendine's assertion that "A woman uses about 20,000 words per day while a man uses about 7,000". I found many similar assertions, with estimates of the male lexical allowance varying from 2,000 to 25,000, while assertions about the female daily word budget ranged from 7,000 to 50,000. But nowhere could I find any evidence that anyone has ever supported these assertions by actually counting words or measuring talking times. My current best guess is that a marriage counselor invented this particular meme about 15 years ago, as a sort of parable for couples with certain communication problems, and others have picked it up and spread it, while modulating the numbers to suit their tastes. This is what happened in the case that Geoff Pullum called The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax, discussed here. If I'm wrong, and you know a source for Brizendine's numbers that isn't just passing along someone else's story, please tell me.
Here's what I've found so far -- Click here to read more
In his blog he discusses the different way this myth is presented; varying numbers, multiple references, etc. But one of the interesting things he kept discovering was this idea of a "Lexical Budget" - that is, the differences between the language use of males and females is not simply one of averages (assuming the difference exists), but there are actual upper limits as to how many words each can speak per day. An interesting example of how this is supposed to impact our daily life is presented in his blog:
Here's the problem. At the end of the day -- whether the woman works in an office of in the home -- there is huge difference between the man's word count and the woman's. A man has spent nearly all his words. He comes home tired and drained, looking for a place to recharge for the next day's battle at the office.
A woman, however, is just warming up. She has thousands of words left to speak, and since her husband's word count is depleted, the conversations often wind up sounding like nothing more than question-and-answer sessions.
Anyway, has anyone come across any good evidence for or against the idea of sex differences in language? Or have they read any interesting myths or studies either looking at "lexical budgets" or some other equally absurd ideas?