Aug 24, 2026 19:00:00

Men have the same level of multitasking ability as women, but they may struggle with 'talking while multitasking.'

Multitasking refers to performing two or more tasks simultaneously, and the idea that 'women are better at multitasking than men' is widely held. New research suggests that while there is little difference between men and women in their ability to multitask, men may be less adept at 'talking while multitasking.'

Men talk less than women during multitasking | Psychological Research | Springer Nature Link
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00426-026-02279-5

New study: Men and women multitask equally well, but men talk less while doing it
https://www.psypost.org/new-study-men-and-women-multitask-equally-well-but-men-talk-less-while-doing-it/

Multitasking, such as 'reading a book while talking to a friend on the phone' or 'participating in a meeting while doing administrative work,' is a very desirable skill for busy modern people. However, it is known that the human brain does not actually process multiple tasks completely in parallel, but rather frequently switches attention between tasks.

Switching between tasks involves a slight delay, so multitasking tends to decrease speed and accuracy, especially with mentally demanding tasks. Switching between tasks becomes particularly difficult when combining tasks that require similar mental resources, such as reading a message while carefully listening to someone. However, many people enjoy multitasking because it reduces monotony and makes the work feel more stimulating and efficient.

This time, a research team led by Andre Sameitat, Deputy Director of the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience at Brunel University in the UK, hypothesized that 'men talk less when performing everyday multitasking,' and conducted an experiment to test this hypothesis.

The experiment involved participants recruited from the Brunel University campus, with an average age of 23-24. There were 37 women and 41 men. Participants received a fee of £36 (approximately 7800 yen) to participate in a multi-task exercise consisting of multiple tasks.

Participants performed a 'simulated cooking task using simulated cooking utensils and ingredients' as part of a multitasking procedure. They were also required to stop the simulated cooking task when a kitchen timer went off and work on a 'task using paper and pencil,' and throughout the process, they monitored words displayed on a screen and simultaneously performed a 'task to write down specific words when they appeared.'

In addition to these tasks, participants were also given a 'conversation task' in which they had to answer complex questions from the speaker during the work, such as, 'Which would you rather lose: all your money and valuables, or all the photos you've ever taken? And why?'

The research team observed the participants as they performed multitasking procedures and recorded their performance. Furthermore, they showed videos of the participants multitasking to a total of 160 people recruited online and asked them to evaluate how well the participants performed the multitasking. The aim was to obtain evaluations of multitasking from the perspective of ordinary people, rather than researchers accustomed to experimental procedures and psychological research.

The experiment revealed that participants' multitasking performance was nearly identical regardless of gender, with the only exception being the conversational task. On average, women answered 25 out of 28 questions, compared to only 20 out of 28 for men.

In other words, women ignored only 12% of the questions, while men ignored 28%. On the other hand, when looking at the content of the answers, there was no difference between men and women in terms of the quality or speed of their responses.

Furthermore, in performance evaluations of multitasking by the general public, there was a tendency to rate women as being better at controlling tasks, performing better, and experiencing less stress than men. The research team believes this result is influenced by women's superior performance on conversational tasks.

The research team concluded, 'Overall, our data supports the idea that there are little gender differences in cognitive visual and manual tasks, but there is a significant gender difference in the ability to multitask while maintaining a conversation. This is a very important skill in daily life and may explain the formation of the widely held stereotype that 'women are better at multitasking than men.''