Gendered word counts again
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The "words per day" thing has mostly gone quiet since it erupted in the media nearly 20 years ago — but here's a sensible replay:
For more about the general background than you want to know, see
"Neuroscience in the service of sexual stereotypes" (8/6/2006)
"Sex-linked lexical budgets" (8/6/2006)
"Sex and speaking rate" (8/7/2006)
"Yet another sex-n-wordcount sighting" (8/14/2006)
"The main job of the girl brain" (9/2/2006)
"The superior cunning of women" (9/2/2006)
"The laconic rapist in the womb" (9/4/2006)
"Open-access sex stereotypes" (9/10/2006)
"David Brooks, Neuroendocrinologist" (9/17/2006)
"Gabby guys: the effect size" (9/25/2006)
""Every 52 seconds": wrong by 23,736 percent?" (10/13/2006)
"Guys are a bit gabbier in Dutch, too" (10/16/2006)
"Two new reviews of Brizendine" (10/30/2006)
"Word counts" (11/28/2006)
"Bible Science Stories" (12/2/2006)
"Sex differences in "communication events" per day?" (12/11/2006)
"The first time?" (7/5/2007)
"Female talkativeness: 'Knowledge protected against induction'" (7/6/2007)
"Interview: The new fashion for biological determinism" (8/10/2008)
"The defend-your-turf area?" (3/29/2010)
Mai Kuha said,
November 22, 2025 @ 4:02 pm
The stickiness of the myth is remarkable. Some years ago I went on a meditation retreat that was silent, that is, no participants interacted with each other at any time. When the last bell rang on the last day, the retiree who had sat next to me all week immediately turned to his wife, who had sat next to him all week, and said "I missed you!" When I reported this touching moment on social media, a friend immediately made some joke (I don't remember what exactly it was) that tried to somehow turn this into evidence supporting the notion that women talk incessantly and that this is difficult for men to endure, which astounded me, as my anecdote was, if anything, making the opposite point.
Philip Taylor said,
November 22, 2025 @ 4:13 pm
A great shame that such a touching moment should be tarnished by a thoughtless jest …
Julian said,
November 23, 2025 @ 3:38 am
Before clicking through to the video of this hip young expert, I was trying to guess whether he would have the same rhetorical style as Language Jones (who I probably came across through a reference on this blog) – talk really really really fast in a fairly flat tone with, in my humble opinion, an irritating subtext of "I'm smart – can you keep up with me?"
He did a bit, though not so badly as Language Jones.
Which is kind of amusing given the topic.
Jarek Weckwerth said,
November 23, 2025 @ 4:37 am
@Julian — Wow, your description is spot on! I've been wondering for quite some time why I have a hard time following Language Jones… That's exactly it!
J. Ott said,
November 24, 2025 @ 9:22 am
Can anyone point me to a metanalysis of various linguist corpi which attempts to answer this question? The video just sort of hand waves the debunking rather than presenting a thorough data-based case.
Julia said,
November 25, 2025 @ 11:48 am
I see he has made some corrections/additions — https://youtube.com/shorts/4oo1urjIF5c?si=QBL9Rtb7Se9nPm6M