A Stanford graduate student "proved" that men in online virtual worlds behave just like men in real life. But do they really?A couple weeks ago I gave a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science about how journalists often misreport the results of gender research because they have a lot of preconceived notions about men and women. Most of these notions come from popular culture, and since journalists are in the pop culture biz, none of this should be a big surprise.
Still, sometimes a story is so egregiously reported -- and based on such flimsy research -- that it takes my breath away. Such was the case with a recent Associated Press story about how a Stanford graduate student had proven that men in online virtual worlds behave just like men in real life.
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