Signaling with babble? Exploring the effects of gender and speaking time on leader emergence

We revisit the “babble hypothesis,” which refers to the positive relationships between speaking time and leader emergence. By drawing on signaling theory, we ask three inter-related questions: (1) Is speaking time an observable signal? (2) Does the dynamism that is inherent in speech affect leadership outcomes? (3) Can speaking time elicit different perceptions based on one’s gender? Using data from 38 teams consisting of over 190 team members, we replicate earlier studies showing that average speaking time causes increased perceptions of leader emergence. We extend these findings by presenting evidence that average speaking time also causes increases in perceived rates of speaking time and perceived speaking time is associated with leader emergence. We also find that one’s gender has limited effects on leader emergence and perceived speaking time after accounting for their average level of speaking time. Interestingly, the consistency in one’s speaking time over the course of a group’s interactions is only weakly affected by role assignment, which limits our ability to test the causal effects of dynamic speech. Our findings underscore the importance of distinguishing between actual leader behaviors and perceptions of those behaviors, suggest new approaches for studying the causal effects of changes over time in speech, and raise new questions for how gender biases can emerge in perceptions of leaders.