An investigation of female/male verbal behaviors in same‐sex and mixed‐sex conversations

Abstract

This paper examines 11 variables commonly believed to discriminate between the verbal behavior of males and females. The analysis uses the Kraemer‐Jacklin (1979) statistic to isolate and test the effects of sex of subject, sex of partner, and their interaction while controlling for between partner correlation. Results indicate that women use more justifiers, intensifiers and agreement whereas men exhibit more vocalized pauses. Men also receive more vocalized pauses. The conversations of mixed‐sex dyads contained more overlaps and, marginally, more interruptions than conversations of same‐sex dyads. However, interruptions and overlaps were not performed more frequently by men (or women).