A meta-analytic review of gender variations in adults' language use: talkativeness, affiliative speech, and assertive speech.

Full Abstract

Three separate sets of meta-analyses were conducted of studies testing for gender differences in adults' talkativeness, affiliative speech, and assertive speech. Across independent samples, statistically significant but negligible average effects sizes were obtained with all three language constructs:
Contrary to the prediction, men were more talkative (d = -.14) than were women. As expected, men used more assertive speech (d = .09), whereas women used more affiliative speech (d = .12). In addition, 17 moderator variables were tested that included aspects of the interactive context (e.g., familiarity, gender composition, activity), measurement qualities (e.g., operational definition, observation length), and publication characteristics (e.g., author gender, publication source). Depending on particular moderators, more meaningful effect sizes (d > .2) occurred for each language construct. In addition, the direction of some gender differences was significantly reversed under particular conditions. The results are interpreted in relation to social-constructionist, socialization, and biological interpretations of gender-related variations in social behavior.

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Author information

Author/s: Leaper, Campbell (C); Ayres, Melanie M (MM);

Affiliation: University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA. cam@ucsc.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Meta-Analysis; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Review

Journal: Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc (Pers Soc Psychol Rev), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Nov; vol 11 (issue 4) : pp 328-63

Dates: Created 2008/05/05; Completed 2008/06/10;

PMID: 18453467, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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