Toe in the Water

Question of the Day Again

Question of the Day Again

Interesting question on QOTD today - how do you rate yourself as a good listener? I was reading through the answers when I began to notice something. The answers quickly became predictable, with almost 100% accuracy. To check on this, I did a little counting and this is what I found.

There were 14 answers when I began my investigation. Of these, six were male and the rest (8) were female. My impression had been that the answers were governed entirely by gender and this proved generally true. Of those who answered that yes, they considered themselves good listeners, five were female. Three females were ready to listen with a few provisos.

The six males were less consistent. Three of them gave flippant answers, apparently admitting to poor listening skills, and only three claimed to be good listeners, one with reservations on BS. The temptation to make a joke rather than answer the question seriously showed that three males (myself included) preferred being considered funny, rather than admitting to anything as personal as listening skills. Kudos to the guys who owned up to being listeners.

It’s a tiny sample statistically speaking, but I think we can glean from it that males and females are different. This should not be news to us as writers, although I’m sure we all have differing answers as to why this is so. Somehow I find that very comforting.


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