could it just be that studies that appear to support traditional roles for women tend to get picked for instant popularization? This phenomenon doesn't just apply to studies about daycare with the potential to guilt-trip working mothers. Rush Limbaugh, also last March, cheerfully reported the results of a Swedish study that seemed to show a correlation between poor health and a more gender-equal distribution of societal resources. That same study was picked up by the British Independent. The popularized message was that feminism makes you sick.

Neither Rush Limbaugh nor the Independent paid any attention to an earlier study by the same researchers showing the reverse. They also ignored other studies finding a positive correlation between greater gender-equality and better overall health.

It seems that a researcher can garner more press just by publishing a study with results that social conservatives wish to hear.