How we judge the mistakes of male vs. female leaders

[ElboRuum]

3. Did they actually study anything?

Seems to me that the conclusion would have been the same or even moreso in affirming gender bias had a bias been exposed.

If this is the case, this suggests the following.

A study was created to study thing X. Aside from the flawed methodologies already mentioned in this thread, the "study" itself could have revealed either one of two outcomes. The first outcome would be A, and the second outcome would be B. Presumably, in such a study, outcome A would indicate something different in the conclusion than if the outcome was B. However, that is not what happened here. In this study, outcome A means the same thing as outcome B.

So in the end result, was anything really studied?

While I can accept that the study was poorly conceived, the fact that completely opposed findings could result in the same or similar conclusions very suspicious.

It usually indicates that the conclusion was forgone and was going to be supported either way.