In which I venture into some dangerous waters: who talks more, men or women?
—Maclin Horton
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Yes
Based on my experience, I think women (on the whole) do tend to talk more than men (on the whole). But there is more to it than that. I remember over 20 years ago waiting with a bunch of men to receive my 3rd degree in the Knights of Columbus. All the talk was simply about sports – so I felt totally alienated from the group. So (again based on my own experience) men, at least in the U.S., unless they are intellectuals, tend to talk about sports or work or maybe movies to the almost total exclusion of everything else. But women, even if they are not intellectuals, will often talk about things that are important and have moral dimensions, e.g., family problems, or relationships or things of that sort, and even if they talk about them in an illogical or inconsistent manner, do very often touch on serious matters.
I had a follow-up post (here ) that included a bit more from the study noting exactly the difference in subject matter that you observe.
I don’t think I’d give either sex a real edge in substance, though (likewise based purely on my observation). It’s true that women are more likely to talk about their families, and mothers *way* more about their children. So you could say that’s inherently more substantive. But from what I’ve heard at work over several decades an awful lot of it is mundane in the extreme (what we had for supper etc.).
About uninteresting sports talk: in one job many years ago I got tired of being the guy who said “What game?” when people asked if he watched the game (college football). So I started watching occasionally just so I’d know what was going on and soon found myself a born-again Crimson Tide fan.