The DOI matches its Crossref record; 53 of the 54 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Gender Differences in Language Use: An Analysis of 14,000 Text Samples
Abstract
Differences in the ways that men and women use language have long been of interest in the study of discourse. Despite extensive theorizing, actual empirical investigations have yet to converge on a coherent picture of gender differences in language. A significant reason is the lack of agreement over the best way to analyze language. In this research, gender differences in language use were examined using standardized categories to analyze a database of over 14,000 text files from 70 separate studies. Women used more words related to psychological and social processes. Men referred more to object properties and impersonal topics. Although these effects were largely consistent across different contexts, the pattern of variation suggests that gender differences are larger on tasks that place fewer constraints on language use.
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“For example, multiple studies report that emoticons (i.e. ‘:)’ ‘:-(‘) are used more often by females [34], [36], [38], but Huffaker & Calvert found males use them more in a sample of 100 teenage bloggers [39].”
From Personality, Gender, and Age in the Language of Social Media: The Open-Vocabulary Approach (2013) · cites this paper as [34]
In the citing paper
“Males used more swear words, object references (e.g., ‘xbox’ and swear words) [34], [89].”
From Personality, Gender, and Age in the Language of Social Media: The Open-Vocabulary Approach (2013) · cites this paper as [34]
In the citing paper
“they mention more psychological and social processes [34] (e.g., ‘love you’ and ‘3’ –a heart)”
From Personality, Gender, and Age in the Language of Social Media: The Open-Vocabulary Approach (2013) · cites this paper as [34]
In the citing paper
“Males used more swear words, object references (e.g., ‘xbox’ and swear words) [34], [89].”
From Personality, Gender, and Age in the Language of Social Media: The Open-Vocabulary Approach (2013) · cites this paper as [34]
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Sorted by citations
The Psychological Meaning of Words: LIWC and Computerized Text Analysis Methods
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“A meta-analysis of the texts from many studies shows that that the largest language differences between males and females are in the complexity of the language used and the degree of social references (Newman, Groom, Handelman, & Pennebaker, 2008).”
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“This is consistent with previous research that has examined gender differences in language by coding for specific words (Newman et al., 2008).”
Metadata
- Authors
- Newman, M. L., Groom, C. J., Handelman, L. D., & Pennebaker, J. W.
- Affiliations
- Arizona State University (US)
- Department for Work and Pensions (GB)
- Oxford University Press (United Kingdom) (GB)
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- ORCID
- Pennebaker, James W.
- Venue
- Discourse Processes
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2008-05-15
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 211-236
- ISSN
- 0163-853X (ISSN-L)
- 1532-6950
- OpenAlex
- W2139875525
- Cited by
- 788
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 28 · 2025: 47 · 2024: 48 · 2023: 61 · 2022: 91 · 2021: 57 · 2020: 63 · 2019: 53 · 2018: 59 · 2017: 61 · 2016: 46 · 2015: 38 · 2014: 59 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 27.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Discourse Processes (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Studies in Language
- Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Discourse Analysis in Language Studies
- Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Linguistic Variation and Morphology
- Keywords
- gender differences in language, language use, women's language, men's language, text analysis, topic categories, object properties, discourse analysis
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