Larvatus Prodeo

Says Albrechtsen:

Here’s a snap brain quiz. Which sex uses, on average, about 20,000 words a day, in contrast to the 7000 uttered by the other sex? If you answered… women, … you’ve been watching too many Woody Allen movies. Now, science is confirming that Woody was right all along.

Um, no. Anyone who reads the Language Log would be well aware that this is a bogus statistic that can be traced back to a self-help book, but not to any scientific study. In fact, “Most studies reported either that men talked more than women, either overall or in some circumstances, or that there was no difference between the genders in amount of talk.”

Albrechtsen’s column is about The Female Brain, a book by neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine that argues cultural differences between genders are largely the result of neurological differences between the male and female brains. Albrechtsen makes the good point that talking about possible neurological differences between the sexes should not be taboo — but nor should columnists accept bold new claims on controversial topics without checking the science behind them.

Language Log’s Mark Liberman became interested because differences in communication form a significant part of Brizendine’s claims. The trouble is, much of what she says on language seems to be unsupported by research, and some of it is probably accurate though you wouldn’t know from her citations.

Continue reading ‘The science of The Female Brain’