Young men in a biology class were somewhat more confident about how smart they were compared with young women. A sample of one class from one university, with who knows how much p-hacking and forking paths, nevertheless goes viral because lots of people think that it likely to be generally true.

While the study was based on students in a single class, it underscored how differently men and women in science perceive their abilities. Such self-perceptions can have cascading effects on motivation, participation and confidence.

Notice the journalist’s clever “can” there… self-perceptions can also leave to non-cascading effects….

And way at the bottom of the article:

The researchers cautioned against overgeneralizing the findings until the study could be replicated in different classes and schools.