Why Women Talk More than Men

In 2006, American neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine claimed that women use, on average, 20,000 words a day, while men use only 7,000. Although this has since been disproven by, um, every person in existence, Brizendine’s false numbers still maintain a grain of truth: Ask almost anyone and they’ll agree that women tend to be chattier than men. If women are the more talkative gender, it really begs the question of why and of how, doesn’t it? Say hello, folks, to FOXP2, the chatterbox protein.

In a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, a group of young 4- and 5-year-olds were examined; out of those toddlers, the study found that the girls had 30 percent more FOXP2 (“language protein”) than the boys. Mike Bowers, who led the study’s team, said that the most important discovery was that FOXP2 “is involved in vocalization” and although they “can’t say that this is the end-all-be-all reasoning … it is one of the first avenues with which we can start to explore why women tend to be more verbal than men.”

Although there’s no reason to draw any serious conclusions from the study just yet, it’s a good reason to tell your husband to shut up and listen: You’ve got science on your side, ladies.

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