Case Study

Explain why the findings from the empirical study fail to support the podcast host's claim. How do the recorded averages and the concept of chance help us comprehend that the talkativeness stereotype is unfounded?

Case context: Imagine a student who hears a podcast host declare, 'It is a scientific fact that women speak 20,00020,000 words a day, while men speak only 7,0007,000.' The student, having read about an empirical study of 369369 college students wearing audio recorders, knows that the actual averages found were 16,21516,215 words for women and 15,66915,669 words for men.

Question: Explain why the findings from the empirical study fail to support the podcast host's claim. How do the recorded averages and the concept of chance help us comprehend that the talkativeness stereotype is unfounded?

Sample answer: The host claims women speak nearly three times as much as men (20,00020,000 vs. 7,0007,000 words). However, the empirical study showed a very small difference between women (16,21516,215 words) and men (15,66915,669 words). Because this tiny difference of 546546 words is small enough to be explained by random chance rather than a systematic gender difference, it shows that the belief in women naturally being far more talkative than men is not supported by empirical evidence.

Key points:

  • The empirical averages (16,21516,215 words for women and 15,66915,669 for men) are close to each other, refuting the extreme ratio claimed by the stereotype.
  • The minor difference between the genders is small enough that it can be attributed to random chance.
  • Because the difference is negligible and likely due to chance, the empirical evidence demonstrates the stereotype is unfounded.

Rubric: Assess whether the student understands that the actual difference (16,21516,215 vs. 15,66915,669 words) is extremely small compared to the stereotype (20,00020,000 vs. 7,0007,000 words), and that a difference of this size can be explained by chance, rendering the stereotype unfounded.

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Updated 2026-05-27

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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU

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