A confident headline deserves a careful look at the claim underneath it.

Confidence is a writing style, not a form of evidence. A headline has to fit a small space and compete for a glance, so it takes the boldest reading available and drops the conditions that made the underlying claim careful. By the time it reaches you, a modest finding about a narrow group can sound like a fact about everyone.

Before repeating something, read far enough to find the actual claim and who it applied to. Notice whether the strong word in the headline appears anywhere below it. If the claim disappears when you look for it, that absence is your answer.