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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStudy: People fear male-named hurricanes more
WASHINGTON Which scares you more: Hurricane Victor or Hurricane Victoria? People are slightly less likely to flee an oncoming storm with a feminine name than a masculine one, a new study finds.
But here is Victoria's secret: Hurricanes with feminine names turn out to be deadlier in the United States than their more macho-sounding counterparts, probably because their monikers make people underestimate their danger, the researchers conclude.
In fact, the two deadliest storms to make landfall in the U.S. since 1979, when male names were introduced, were named Katrina and Sandy.
-snip-
Shavitt said both men and women rated female storms less scary and they both "are likely to believe that women are milder and less aggressive." It fits with other research about gender perception differences, she said. Sandy, while it can also be a male name, was chosen as a female name by weather authorities in 2012. Shavitt said it also ranked as rather feminine when she asked a small group of people to assess names on a masculine-feminine scale.
More at http://www.statesman.com/news/ap/top-news/study-people-fear-male-named-hurricanes-more/ngCFX/ .
[font color=green]If Skittles reads this thread I'm gonna get my ass kicked, indeed![/font]
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)TexasTowelie
(112,568 posts)davidn3600
(6,342 posts)Gender stereotypes influences social psychology.
Makes you wonder if Hurricane Katrina was a male's name if more people would have feared that, and less would have died?
morningfog
(18,115 posts)Skittles
(153,251 posts)YES INDEED
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)I personally think it means that sexism is so ingrained in our society that we make unconscious decisions based on it, totally foregoing facts in favor of bias. But it's only one study. Interesting, nonetheless. I agree that we probably need a few more decades of storms to have enough data to make this kind of study meaningful.
Liberal Veteran
(22,239 posts)If a Category 1 hurricane named "Human Meat Grinder" is coming your way, you can think about staying.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)that was called "Usagi", which is the Japanese name for "Rabbit". As Monty Python's King Arthur would say, "That Rabbit was dynamite!"
winter is coming
(11,785 posts)yes, it's possible for hurricanes to be even more unpopular.
TexasTowelie
(112,568 posts)Hurricane Hillary might cause all the teabaggers in Houston to flee to your hometown!