Participants were assigned conversational partners at random, and asked to talk for up to ten minutes on one of forty topics
I would never have predicted that women would be more chatty in such a test. I would have predicted that men would talk more on a supplied topic. I believed, and still believe that women are more chatty under the commonly intended meaning of ‘chatty’. A more relevant test:
Asign random pairs of people and send them on a 5 hour hike together. Count words.
I would expect female pairs to say more words than the male pairs. Mixed pairings I would find somewhat more difficult to predict due to possible interference from courtship protocols.
I would never have predicted that women would be more chatty in such a test. I would have predicted that men would talk more on a supplied topic. I believed, and still believe that women are more chatty under the commonly intended meaning of ‘chatty’. A more relevant test:
Asign random pairs of people and send them on a 5 hour hike together. Count words.
I would expect female pairs to say more words than the male pairs. Mixed pairings I would find somewhat more difficult to predict due to possible interference from courtship protocols.