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Birgit Davis-Todd, an executive editor at Harlequin in Toronto — which had no corporate involvement in the research — says the study verifies the marketing tactics they've used for decades. "We'll use a variation on a baby story, for example, because we know it sells books," says Davis-Todd. "But can you stretch it to say that what women want to read is what women are all about? I don't think so. Readers enjoy the fantasy."

XD

Interesting but incomplete. Furthermore, really bad science.

This sounds like an undergrad research study (use LUKE, an automated text analyzer, to count 'meaningful' words), then hypothesize about why those words turn up.

No reproducible results, no predictions, no working model, no evidence that can be used to support or disprove existing theories.

A waste of time. Only reason it got press was that it hinted at sex and romance.

Do women throughout all walks of life buy the same kind of books? I rather doubt it.