Question

Who talks more—women or men? According to Louann Brazening, author of The Female Brain,

women say nearly three times as many words per day as men. Skeptical researchers devised a study to test this claim. They used electronic devices to record the talking patterns of $396$ university students who volunteered to participate in the study. The device was programmed to record $30$ seconds of sound every $12.5$ minutes without the carrier’s knowledge. According to a published report of the study in Scientific American, “Men showed a slightly wider variability in words uttered... But in the end, the sexes came out just about even in the daily averages: women at $16,215$ words and men at $15,669.”56$ This difference was not statistically significant. What conclusion can we draw from this study? Explain.

Short answer

The sample was voluntary rather than random.

Step-by-step solution

Given information

Number ofuniversity students who participated, $n=396$
The daily average of women$=16,215$

The daily averages of men $=15,669$

Concept

Human studies must be approved by an institutional review board in advance. Before taking part, all participants must express their informed consent. Any information regarding the study participants must be kept private.

Explanation

A study was done to investigate the claim that men or women talk more. As a result of this research, we may conclude that the sample frame was university students, not the whole population. As a result, the sample was voluntary rather than random. Volunteers may be fundamentally different from the rest of the population. The outcomes of this experiment do not allow for any definite conclusions.