Hurricanes with pretty female names produce more deaths, scientists discover.
Scientists analyzed over 60 years of data on hurricane deaths before concluding people take storms named Dolly or Hanna less seriously than those named Christopher or Victor.
"The problem is that a hurricane's name has nothing to do with its severity," said Kiju Jung, University of Illinois doctoral student and lead scientist of the study, in a statement. "If people in the path of a severe storm are judging the risk based on the storm's name, then this is potentially very dangerous."
As a result, the more feminine-sounding hurricanes end up killing more people.
According to the research, hurricanes with female names are subconsciously believed to be less threatening based on gender stereotypes.
Ironically, all hurricanes used to be given only female names until male names were incorporated to avoid sexism.