Simultaneous Talking in Conversation and Sex of Speakers

Simultaneous talking in group discussion was observed in three settings, a high school discussion group, a university faculty office, and the cafeteria of a university student union. Each instance of a listener's talking before a speaker had finished was classified as in agreement with the speaker, in disagreement with the speaker, or as irrelevant to the speaker's statement. Simultaneous talking occurred on about 19% of all utterances. Listeners were more likely to talk simultaneously when the speaker was a woman, and men much more likely to talk when a woman was speaking. Female listeners were more likely to show agreement with male speakers, while both men and women were more likely to show disagreement with female speakers. It was concluded that an analysis of types of simultaneous talking may provide a useful index of dominance.