What fact-checking a stereotype actually looks like

An Atlas entry takes a working day to research and write — sometimes more. The pattern is the same every time. Find the popular version of the claim. Find the citation people quote. Trace the citation back to the actual source. Read the source. See whether the claim survives contact with the data. Identify what got popular vs. what got published — those are not always the same thing. ‘Women talk three times as much as men’ famously cites a book whose author cited a self-help pamphlet. Once you know that, you can’t un-know it. Most of what we publish is the second hour of someone’s read — not the headline, but the trace. Readers tell us this is the part they actually wanted.