{
  "id": 3289898,
  "title": "Stunning study finds most papers claiming sex differences never actually compared the sexes",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/25/stunning-study-finds-most-papers-claiming-sex-differences-never",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-08-25T15:00:49.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PsyPost",
    "slug": "psypost",
    "url": "https://www.psypost.org/stunning-study-finds-most-papers-claiming-sex-differences-never-actually-compared-the-sexes/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A recent study published in PNAS reveals that numerous scientific papers claiming distinct reactions in men and women to treatments or interventions lack sufficient statistical evidence to support these claims. When researchers analyzed recent studies in behavioral and brain sciences, they found that less than one-quarter of articles correctly compared male and female responses. This lack of rigorous analysis raises doubts about the actual evidence backing medical recommendations tailored to different sexes. Policies have been introduced by major funding organizations to encourage the inclusion of both female and male subjects in scientific research, aiming to understand how biological differences between the sexes might affect disease development or treatment responses. Donna L. Maney, a professor of psychology at Emory University and lead author of the study, noted that despite policy changes promoting inclusive research, many papers that claim sex differences fail to properly compare the sexes. Maney observed that most studies using flawed analytical methods, which can lead to incorrect conclusions about sex-specific effects. These findings echo previous research, such as a 2020 survey of neuroscience papers that showed only 15 percent of experiments with both sexes included statistical tests to compare them. A 2022 survey revealed that despite an increase in studies including both sexes over a decade, only 5 percent of the papers used sex as a primary variable to identify actual differences. The latest study focused on papers that explicitly claimed sex-dependent effects in their titles, analyzing over a thousand matching articles. Out of these, fewer than one in four contained a valid statistical comparison to support their claims. Some papers had the correct comparison but did not report significant differences, while others claimed a sex difference without reporting the results. The study also identified a common statistical error where researchers divide samples into male and female groups and analyze each independently, potentially missing real effects due to smaller subgroup sizes. Despite this issue, many studies were published in high-ranked journals and received considerable citations, indicating the problem extends beyond inexperienced researchers. Proper statistical tests varied across fields, with psychology papers showing the highest compliance (39 percent) and neuroscience papers having the lowest (18 percent). The research highlights the need for more rigorous statistical analysis to ensure the credibility of claims about sex differences in medical treatments and interventions.",
  "summary": "A recent PNAS study highlights a massive math problem in neuroscience: most studies claiming to find differences between male and female responses fail to use the correct statistical tests to actually compare the sexes.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}