Journalists are looking for characters. They're looking for people in the story. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to researchers who've said, "Why don't you just quote from my study?" I say, "Well, I'd love to do that, but unfortunately, you can't just quote from a study. We're journalists, we need quotes from you, we need anecdotes, we need people. That's the way we tell stories in the media. That's how we get people interested." A lot of times, because of the fact that journalists are telling stories, they have to come up with characters that the masses can relate to, and often times editors believe that the masses relate best to stereotypical individuals, so we want to see stereotypical images of men and women.

The other thing is that many science stories are structured around the idea of a conflict because people like conflict. We like to see people fighting. Or, supposedly we do. Editors think that we do.