Gender Wars! "Study says feminine hurricane names could cause more deaths"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Would more residents of New Orleans have evacuated ahead of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 if it had been named Kurt?

A study published on Monday suggests they would have, perhaps reducing Katrina's death toll of more than 1,800.

Because people unconsciously think a storm with a female name is less dangerous than one with a masculine name, those in its path are less likely to flee, and are therefore more vulnerable to harm.

As a result, strong Atlantic hurricanes with the most feminine names caused an estimated five times more deaths than those with the most masculine names, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign wrote in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/weather/hurricane/os-hurricane-names-study-20140602,0,2684841.story