Do men listen different than women, if so, why?

Question

Want to know why men hear what they want to hear at times, I know that men are different than women, but why such a barrier when listening when just a small piece of information is given?

Answer 1

When men listen they are usually searching for the point to what is being said, because when they speak it is usually to make some point. When women speak it's usually to register their feelings about some matter, so when they listen I imagine they are looking for the same thing.

So with men, it's about the words spoken. With women, it's about the speech given.

Answer 2

Have you noticed (in answers to your question) all the anger women have unfairly directed towards men? Can a guy get fair treatment today from female chauvinistic pigs? Makes you wonder who really starts Domestic Violence... Woman's language consists of excess words (according to most men.) Yes women are intelligent and say intelligent things. But our worlds are so ALIEN to each other that women don't care about us (football, etc) and we don't care that Mary down the block wore her red sweater today, the one made by her grandmother but was missing a button and oh gosh, didn't she look funny? I think with both sides of my brain. While I might jump from subject to subject very fast, many women tend to do it MUCH more than me. Like an essay with sentences that run into each other (and make no logical sense to the paragraph before it) women talk like they are meandering down a country trail, then get hiccups and abruptly change the subject. "Hey did you see those blueberries? By the way Martha was wearing her blueberry skirt. Did you see the latest King Kong movie. Oh my daughter was so cute in her pink dress. Do you think the President is right?" This is an exaggeration, meant to fit into many paragraghs. No I am not smarter, I just communicate differently and many times (bet you can't tell here!) I use less words. Lol... :) Finally the answer: because caveman learned he had to look at the tiger that was at the cave's entrance. He could not take his hand off the bow and arrow no matter what. That is man's concentration. The problem is compounded when or if both sexes do not respect the other ("oh he's dumb or she's never says anything.") Today women are brainwashed to believe they are superior. It's easier for them to denigrate men than to look or treat us as humans.

Answer 3

Yes they do! For men it is called selective hearing. Men are not detail oriented when it comes to a conversation with women,so they listen long enough to catch "what they think are the important parts"and tune out the rest.They consider the rest babbling.Plus women always include how they feel about what's happening and men are more logical about things.Dont get me wrong there are men out there that are great listeners,sports fans dont count! It's considered sometimes "the man thing",they hate to think.Women are constantly thinking.They say never let a women's thoughts run,because it could be dangerous,possibly!

Answer 4

Both men and women filter what they deem unimportant.

I can talk to my wife for 10 minutes about boxing results and strategies, and I bet she'll filter all of it. On the other hand, I have to try pretty hard to focus on how some woman is feeling about some other woman.

Generally, men tend to filter out the speaker's 'feelings'. We listen to gather information, identify problems, and suggest solutions.

Women often (at least compared to men) speak as a way of sharing feelings, validating relationships, and improving bonds.

Both are what they are.

Answer 5

I'm not sure that they listen differently...we all have ears. My guess is that maybe people communicate in different ways based on being left or right brained and their personality type. There are 16 basic personality types so imagine that broken down even more. Then add in the distractions of everyday life...yep, that could definitely make it seem like someone doesn't listen the same way as you.

Answer 6

Take notice to both sexes. You will see that woman hear things that are pertinent to what they find important. Men do the same thing. Its just that men find different things of importance than women, so they hear different things. I think that psychologically speaking, the mind shuts off information that it deems unnecessary.

Answer 7

Let me be honest... most of the time when my wife is talking, all I hear is "Blah blah, blah, blah blah blah." It's mainly because I have absolutely NO interest in what she is saying. If most men were honest, they would admit that they wished that their wife/girlfriend would just 'shut-the-hell-up' and quit yapping so much. Silence is golden.
I do like having a good conversation with my wife from time to time, but like most women she talks too damned much and I have to tune her out.
My advise, keep the conversations to a minmum, and if you want to yak it up, talk to your girlfriends.
And I find myself about 95% in agreement with lenoracapers (who posted above).

Answer 8

You mean why can women say one thing one minute, and then turn around and say just the opposite 5 minutes later and believe both contradicting things, and men can't understand?

We are socialized not to let our emotions run our lives.

Answer 9

women listen to everything and men only have the ability to hear things in which they want to hear. i think you have a better chance of getting some one to listen to you on life support. if a ball game is on the man's listening skills flatline

Answer 10

ya i dont agree either as a guy, when i went out with girls i could repeat everything she had ever said to me, same goes for most girls that talk to me, mainly cuz i dont focus on a girls boobs but rather her eyes because im not a boob man or an *** man but an eye man lol