Women are, um, better at telling lies

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 06/03/2002 | Auslan Cramb

[Pokey78]

Women are more fluent speakers and better liars than men, according to a study that examined the number of "ums" and "ahs" in the speech of both sexes.

	'I did not have sex with that woman'

The survey found that men are almost twice as likely as women to pause or hesitate while speaking.

When telling a lie, the gaps between words often increase, making it easier to decide that a man is lying. Scientists at Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, who counted the pauses in normal speech, found that women have greater fluency and are less likely to become tongue-tied when lying.

Robin Lickley, of the department of speech and language, said: "All the males had more pauses than females. Men tend to be more hesitant, which includes repeating single words to cover up gaps.

"Females tend to be better speakers. They are more fluent at a younger age, so from the beginning they get more practice. That seems to continue in later life.

"When it comes to lying, if you are having to create something, you would want to pause longer because you would want to be careful about what you are going to say.

"The longer it takes you to formulate what you are going to say, the more likely you are to pause, so the more likely you are going to use an 'um' or an 'ah' to fill in the gap."

The study found that, on average, men pause three times every 100 words. Mr Lickley said it was a matter of debate whether biological or social reasons caused the difference between the sexes.

He added that "ums" and "ahs" were a perfectly normal device, with different forms in every language, used to avoid leaving a moment of silence.

The Spanish say "em" and "este", the Swedes say "hmm", and the Japanese have a wide range of options, including "anoo" and "jaa".

[apochromat]

Not only that, they are more believable..

[riley1992]

It's a gift. LOL

[DallasMike]

They get a lot more practice talking.

[blam]

In normal every day conversations, women say four times more words than men. This jumps to ten times more words than men during an altercation.

It has always baffled me why women lie so much.

[germanicus]

For some people, like Bill Clinton, you can easily tell when they're lying. Their lips are moving.

[ctonious]

The survey found that men are almost twice as likely as women to pause or hesitate while speaking

It's the guilt and shame that causes all those gaps. Smarmy types, like used car salesmen and Clintonites, are immune to this syndrome.

[Species8472]

Of course:

Hillary Tells NRA Member: I Used to Be a Duck Hunter

[SauronOfMordor]

In normal every day conversations, women say four times more words than men. This jumps to ten times more words than men during an altercation.

The number of words is not the key issue -- it's the semantic content. I find many women say quite a bit before getting to the point.

[Terriergal]

yep.

[Terriergal]

That is, if they get to a point.

[scholar]

I have to question this study. I had a girlfriend who was cheating on her husband. There were occasions when she would have to cover her tracks.

She would come up with the most elaborate lies that any nitwit could see through. She never understood the principle of KISS (keep it simple stupid).

[Verginius Rufus]

The study found that men pause on average three times in 100 words. Actually the average for men would be quite a bit lower than that except that Algore's 300 pauses per 100 words messed up the average.

[drq]

"The survey found that men are almost twice as likely as women to pause or hesitate while speaking."
The reason men pause more is because they think before they speak, not that they are less fluent.

[kcvl]

Hillary Tells NRA Member: I Used to Be a Duck Hunter

[kcvl]

I'm sorry I didn't see your post before I posted. Great minds think alike I suppose. LOL!

[G-Bear]

It took a scientific analysis to figure this out? All you need to do is get married!