Fertile females less likely to match language of male conversation partners

Washington - Whether a man will match his language to that of a female conversation partner depends on how fertile she is, researchers have suggested.

Linguistic alignment between conversation partners is well documented, and is often interpreted to reflect affiliation between the speakers.

A study, however, reports that higher female fertility levels were associated with lower levels of linguistic matching from male conversation partners.

The researchers, led by Jacqueline Coyle of at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, say that this result could be explained in the context of recent data suggesting that such non-conforming behavior may be a way for men to display their mating fitness.

The finding was recently published in the open access journal PLoS ONE.