The Secret Love Lives of Teenage Boys

Social scientists who study young love are discovering that contrary to popular belief, male adolescents don't just want to have fun

In 1995 Peggy Giordano did a study of high school yearbooks. She was leafing through one when something caught her eye about the notes people had written there, something about their rawness and their honesty. "I was amazed at some of the messages that the boys were writing to girls," Giordano says. "They seemed to be so emotional and so heartfelt. It didn't seem to jibe with the picture of boys' only wanting one thing and objectifying young women."

Giordano is not the typical target audience for a mash note written in a yearbook. She's a professor of sociology at Bowling...

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