Women interrupt to show concern, but they think men disrupt the discussion by shifting the subject.

Men do try to control the conversation by disrupting it. They also believe a woman's supportive interjections (for example, "go on") are interruptions. Women spend more talking time with family and close friends, expressing support and discussing experiences. Men tend to talk more at work and in formal and social settings, and their goal is the exchange of information, even when conversing with a buddy. At home, women do talk more and become perturbed with less responsive partners. Women try to work on their relationships, while men see little need to speak unless there is a specific purpose -- a problem to solve, a decision to make. Women are typically in conversation mode; they are more likely to ask questions. Their goal is to get others to acquiesce through agreement. Men often interpret this approach as manipulation. They will make statements rather than suggestions. Their objective is to get their way directly and quickly. If that doesn't work, they'll exit the discussion; they may either be angry or simply less passionate about the subject. Men are resentful, believing women are trying to trick them. If men won't participate in back and forth negotiations, women feel slighted. This could easily turn into an argument. A dead car can lead to lively discussions between men and women. Their approaches to problem solving are likely to be different -- women want to examine the situation, but men might already be out the door to the dealership. Men and women approach an analytical discussion differently. Men tend to focus on facts and seek immediate resolutions; action is the conversational goal. Women desire more extensive talk about problems, sharing feelings and finding common experiences. Men don't understand why women don't want to solve problems, why they seem ungrateful for direct help. Women are hurt by the perceived disregard for emotions and frustrated when they believe they are being pushed to acquiesce too quickly. Compliments are a way of reaching out to one another, an offer of affirmation and inclusion. Men are more likely to volunteer evaluations instead of hand out compliments. Similarly, they will not seek out compliments because they want to avoid being critiqued themselves. If a woman asks a question with the hope of being praised or flattered, a man may well see it as a way to offer advice. Women use apologies to try to create or maintain connections. Men, on the other hand, are concerned with what an apology might do: It might lower them to a subordinate position, a place where they've never wanted to be since boyhood. If a man fears losing power and avoids apologizing, a woman might consider this insensitive behavior, becoming offended and annoyed. Women often use questions in an argument. It's how they present their opposition. Men are more likely to take the simple, direct approach. Women often try to get their point across by asking many types of questions: defiant, informational and rhetorical. The questions are

designed to present an opposition or gather data. Men's contributions to arguments are often simple and direct. They're so straightforward, in contrast to women's questions, that men might not even realize that a conflict is occurring. Men are concerned with being right and less concerned about anyone else's feelings. This perceived lack of compassion upsets women. Men dislike questions, interpreting them as censure, and they react by closing down emotionally. This pattern leads women to become increasingly suspicious and wary. On one side of the room, there's a group of women, deep in conversation. Their chairs are all turned toward each other, and they continually make eye contact. On the other side of the room, there's a group of four men. They sit at angles to each other. During much of their discussion, their eyes roam around the room, glancing at each other infrequently. One specific aspect of nonverbal communication is body orientation. If a man won't make eye contact or face his female conversational partner, she (perceiving conversation as integral to relationships) may interpret this as a lack of interest. He may become annoyed that she is rejecting his efforts; to him, his relaxed body position is actually helping him concentrate. Nonverbal communication involves varying levels of body expression, with women usually functioning at high intensity. Faces are animated and hands are in motion, often touching others. Men are more conservative in facial movement and body contact. However, they do tend to be unreserved in sitting styles: sprawling, stretching and spreading out. The intensity level for women drops for the sitting position -- they tend to draw in, keeping arms and legs close to their bodies. Women's actions focus on maintaining the relationship: providing attention and encouraging participation. The goal for men, however, depends upon the task. Want to appear in charge? Use the body to control the discussion space. Want to preserve calm and prevent emotional escalation? Keep the face quiet and impassive. She's more discussion-oriented; he's all action. Girls' friendships focus on making connections -talk is essential to this process. Sharing secrets, relating experiences, revealing problems and discussing options are essential during girls' development. Boys generally take another approach to friendship. Their camaraderie is not less profound; it's just different. Buddy groups tend to be larger, focusing on activities rather than conversation. Women communicate through dialogue, discussing emotions, choices and problems. Males remain action-oriented -- the goal of communication is to achieve something. Brain scans have revealed that men and women have different brain structures for experiencing and processing emotions, and other studies have shown that women are better able to determine another's emotion from the sound of a voice or from a picture. Men, according to many studies, are considered more likely to take risks than women are. In many cases, that sense of daring can prove fatal. An excess of testosterone may be the culprit for men's death-defying stunts, but don't count out a desire to impress a lovely lady. In a study of male skateboarders, the subjects were much more likely to try a riskier stunt and exhibit

measurably higher levels of testosterone when women were watching than when other men were watching. While men have a desire to astound others by taking risks, another study showed that women were more likely to believe that the worst possible outcome of a risk-taking stunt would occur to them, leading them not to take the risk. Men are more likely than women to be colorblind. Researchers suggest that one reason for the disparity is due to men's ancient roles as hunters and women's ancient roles as gatherers. It was beneficial for women to be able to see a wider variety of colors so that they could find and select the best foodstuffs for her family. Trying to find something funny on television can bring out the differences in a couple. Gross-out humor and slapstick comedy are usually on the menu for a man's comedy marathon, while cerebral wit is more likely to appeal to a woman. Researchers have used brain imaging studies to find the funny spot of the brain, and in both men and women, it's the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. That part of the brain lights up when we hear or see something funny, but the process of getting it to light up is different in men and women. In one study, men and women watched cartoons and rated them according to how funny they were. When the women watched the cartoons, a part of their brain associated with analytical thinking was much more active than men completing the same task. Then when women decided a cartoon was funny, their reward centers lit up much more strongly than the men's did. The researchers decided that women think more about whether something will be funny, and they don't necessarily believe it will be. As a result of this pessimism, when something strikes them as funny, they get a greater reward out of it than men do. Men, on the other hand, may see a Three Stooges episode and decide that anything those crazy guys do will be hilarious. She may think she has a problem all figured out, but he just needs more time to think about it. When it comes to working out a problem, women are consummate multitaskers. In this situation, the woman might do well to give the man time to think about the issue; a 2010 study revealed that men aren't as skilled at dealing with more than one problem or task at a time as women are. In the study, men and women were asked to complete several tasks in a short period of time, including solving math problems, reading a map, answering a phone call and explaining a strategy to find a lost key. The researchers expected the men to perform better at these tasks because previous studies had shown that men excel at the spatial reasoning required by these problems. However, the women performed 70 percent better than the men did at juggling the demands and completing the tasks. For best problem-solving results, men may need more time without interruption than women do. Men rely on the Internet for recreational activities, such as listening to music, playing games or joining sports fantasy leagues. Women, on the other hand, enjoy the Internet as a tool to build relationships. They're much more likely to send out in-depth e-mails to friends and family, and women outnumber men on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. These sites allow women to build communities and provide an easy way to share photos and news.