For ages, a stereotype has been attributed to men and women. That is, that women talk exponentially more than men. It's been the butt of every comics joke, the punchline of every sitcom laugh track, and the plotline for more films than I can count.

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There's never exactly been strong evidence to back this claim up, though, so the University of Arizona went looking for answers.

Do Men or Women Talk More?

In 2007, U of A conducted a study to find the truth, and found that both genders tend to speak the same amount of words per day, averaging around 16,000. They decided to re-run the study in 2024, and found a much more nuanced answer.

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On average, women speak about 3,000 more words a day than men, but only during a specific period of life. That is, the ages from 25-65, or early to middle adulthood. In age groups tested outside of this, the gap was tightened to show almost no noticeable difference between men and women.

They did, however, find a larger issue.

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Specifically, researchers noticed a troubling trend: the amount of words spoken per day per person  has decreased by about 3,000 between 2008 and 2018. This is likely a consequence of the rise of social media, forcing us to text, DM, and post as opposed to just opening our mouths and talking.

[University of Arizona]

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