Nubile women more expressive in texting messages than men

WASHINGTON - Eligible women were found to be more expressive than men in texting messages, thanks to technology.

Indiana University (IU) researchers found that when men and women exchange text message in a public, interactive dating market, it is the women who use more non-standard, expressive language techniques.

Susan Herring and Asta Zelenkauskaite show that while men historically talk more in public settings, when the exchanges occur via text messaging in a public venue — in this case, Italy’s interactive channel Allmusic, it is the women who push their messages closest to the character-count limit, who use more abbreviations and insertions.

‘The messages are very flirtatious and have nothing to do with the television show,’ said Herring, a professor at the IU School of Library and Information Science.

‘In the linguistic marketplace there have always been different values associated with standard and non-standard language, and here we have found results that are paradoxical, that are the opposite of the recognised socio-linguistic gender patterns,’

‘Women have historically used standard language when they are social aspirers, or want to be perceived as above their station,’ Herring said. ‘Men talk more; women are more polite.’

But that historical footnote falls apart under the influence of computer-mediated communication such as short message services (SMS) and text messaging, the researchers found, after looking at 1,164 gender-defined messages posted on-screen during the real-time Italian music video programme, said an IU release.

The report appeared in the quarterly Written Communication.