One goal of the Good News Network is to break stereotypes of society that no longer serve. "An article in this week’s issue of Science blasts the popular myth that women are more talkative than men." After listening to the daily chatter of almost 400 college students, a new study that claims to be the first of its kind found the rate of talking was nearly equal. "The stereotype of the ‘female chatterbox and silent male’ needs to be debunked. Not only because women are harmed by it, but because men are disadvantaged by it, too," said University researcher, Matthias Mehl…
"This is the way the stereotype has been maintained in the past," he says. "It is fairly easy to see what you want to see — to jump on the very chatty woman that you certainly find and say, ‘See, women talk a lot’ and to overlook the very talkative man."
(I know I could confirm their findings if I measured the talkativity of our teenage sons who are daily on the phone for a duration as long as our daughter.)
Listen to or read the story by Richard Knox at NPR.