Contrary to popular belief, men talk more than women, research has found.
But when women do speak, it’s worth listening – because they use more varied and thoughtful language than men.
Psychologist Geoffrey Beattie, from Manchester University, reviewed 56 studies into male and female communication and discovered that 24 concluded men used more words per day – while only two pointed to women being the more talkative sex.
Professor Beattie then carried out his own study, recording 50 conversations on a variety of topics before giving volunteers scripts of the exchanges with every fifth word missing and asking them to fill in the gaps.
The words spoken by women were harder to guess because they used language more carefully, said the professor.
For example, when paying compliments, the men tended to rely on bland and therefore more predictable words, such as 'nice' and 'good'.
A typical male compliment might be: 'You look really nice today.' A woman, however, would be more likely to say: 'I really love your jacket. Where did you buy it?'
Overall, the men’s words could be guessed 81 per cent of the time, compared with 71 per cent for the women.
The only time the sexes were verbal equals was when talking about current affairs, the research for insurance company Sheilas’ Wheels found.
Professor Beattie said: ‘It is men who are more likely to talk for the sake of talking when engaged in social chitchat by recycling their words with ritualistic and redundant language that doesn’t contain new information.
'Female “nattering” is little more than a cultural myth.'