HUMAN CONVERSATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Observational studies of human conversations in relaxed social setting s suggest that these consist predominantly of exchanges of social info rmation (mostly concerning personal relationships and experiences). Mo st of these exchanges involve information about the speaker or third p arties, and very few involve critical comments or the soliciting or gi ving of advice. Although a policing function may still be important (e .g., for controlling social cheats), it seems that this does not often involve overt criticism of other individuals' behavior. The few signi ficant differences between the sexes in the proportion of conversation time devoted to particular topics are interpreted as reflecting femal es' concerns with networking and males' concerns with self-display in what amount to a conventional mating lek.