Angela Haupt in Time Magazine: Thirty years ago, when Thomas Brinthaupt became a new parent—and was in the thick of long, sleep-deprived days and nights—he started coping by talking out loud to himself. That inspired him to research why people engage in this type of self-talk. A few key reasons have emerged, including social isolation: As you might expect, people who spend lots of time alone are more likely to keep themselves company by chit-chatting out loud. (Brinthaupt’s mother lived by herself, and after he overheard her solo conversations, she told him talking to herself helped her get through the day.) The same goes for only children—who engage in self-talk more frequently than those with siblings—as well as adults who had an imaginary companion they talked to when they were kids.
The other main reason why people talk out loud to themselves is to deal with “situations that are novel or highly stressful, or where you’re not sure what to do or think or feel,” says Brinthaupt, a professor emeritus of psychology at Middle Tennessee State University. Studies have found that when you’re anxious or experiencing, for example, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, you’re much more likely to talk to yourself. Upsetting or disturbing experiences make people want to resolve or understand them—and self-talk is a tool that helps them do so, he says.
There’s also an age factor involved. Young children talk out loud to themselves as they’re learning social roles, but eventually, that becomes internalized as inner speech. Older adults are particularly likely to engage in self-talk, Brinthaupt says. “Maybe it’s to help them remember, or maybe it’s lowered inhibitions,” he says. “My mom used to say, ‘I don’t care what other people think. I’m talking to myself.’ The rest of us in the middle still have that inhibition. You don’t want to do it too much, because people might question your sanity.”
Are people who talk out loud smarter? Or, well, the inverse? Very limited research has explored the connection, but Brinthaupt did find that college students’ GPA only has weak associations with tendency to engage in self-talk. He points out that GPA isn’t a great measure of intelligence. If he had to guess, he speculates that, on an “extreme level,” people with genius-level IQ levels might engage in higher levels of self-talk than others. But overall, “I think intelligence doesn’t really matter,” he says. Still, he notes that it would be interesting to research how self-talk content (are your convos with yourself positive or negative?) and function (why do you do it?) vary among people with different IQ levels.
More here.
