Sunday, February 28, 2010

Cooperation and combat

Geoffrey and Viqidis discuss comparative communicative output across genders.

...

Geoffrey: Why do females talk three times as much as males? In all species.

Viqidis: Because men don't listen, that's why.

Geoffrey: Maybe women are talking so much men switch off, they are filtering, they are sampling.

Viqidis: Hmm. You chicken and egging me?

Geoffrey: Wouldn't dream of it. Just engaging in conversation with you.

Viqidis: Engaging? Sounds militaristic.

Geoffrey: On your terms. if you're cooperative, I will be too. If you're combative...

Viqidis: You'll what?

Geoffrey: I'll still be cooperative. I'm not combative. That's just the way I am. Verbally and physically.

_________
Voice-over

Word Count Results:

Geoffrey: 67
Viqidis: 17
Viqidis has a word count here of only 25% of the word count of Geoffrey.

Unproven hypothesis? Biased sampling? Mistaken premise?
Or is it just that soothing words often outnumber aggressive ones?

...



3 comments:

N_O said...

I heard that women often just wanted to talk about something and did not need a solution while men tended to think they had to provide any specific answers including a solution when they were talked to.
I guess this is true and also this is one of the reasons why women speak more words than men.

Barry Natusch said...

I think it was Deborah Tannen in her book You Just Don't Understand who highlighted this "women like sympathy, men like solutions" difference.

So does sympathetic talk require more words than solution talk? Hmm.

rolenzo said...

I see in today's Yomiuri that the latest (though knowing the Yomiuri perhaps already outré) mens' fashion in ToeKyoe is skirts. Another instance of genderblending...isn't Tannen bombed conversation going the way of trou then? Pass me my sporran would ye? Looking for sympathy but not wanting to skirt an issue, respectfully awaiting your next post sir.
Lor