Gender-linked linguistic behavior in television interviews

We examined linguistic behavior among men and women in unscripted, televised interviews. Women used language that focused on social and sensory processes, and they expressed themselves with simpler language, more self-referent pronouns, and emphasized personal certainty in their ideas more than men. They did not show more emotion than men in their language. Men used less common language and larger words connected by articles than did women, and they produced more passive, third-person, depersonalized speech than women. Little evidence of accommodation and within-gender exacerbation of effects was seen. The importance of language as a device to signal messages about ourselves that we wish to convey to others is discussed.