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Community => Recreation Commons => Our researchers have made a breakthrough! => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on June 03, 2014, 06:53:22 pm

Title: Do America's Sexist Attitudes Apply to Hurricanes Too?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on June 03, 2014, 06:53:22 pm

Do America's Sexist Attitudes Apply to Hurricanes Too?
The Atlantic Wire
By Danielle Wiener-Bronner  18 hours ago


(http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/rcqUQYgLHsj33yO45qJJ3w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTQ1NTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz02NzU-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/theatlanticwire/Do_America_s_Sexist_Attitudes_Apply-8f40ca700b0b052e2c0db4def2af9974)



Researchers have claimed that people are more likely to prepare for a hurricane with a male name than a female name due to implicit sexism, in a study published in PNAS which is, more than likely, incorrect.

The study, "Female hurricanes are deadlier than male hurricanes," attempts to figure out why (slightly) more people die in storms with female names than in storms with male ones. In order to test the theory that this is because people are pretty fundamentally sexist ("warm fuzzy, Tabitha won't hurt us as much as mean old Harry, so we won't take precautions") the researchers asked six groups of volunteers a number of hypothetical, storm-related questions that hinged on each storm's names. For example, volunteers who saw lists of hurricane names without descriptions assumed those with male names would be stronger. Equipped with more detailed information on the storms, they still thought "Alexander" would be more dangerous than "Alexandra," and so on.

But a few methodological flaws hamper the theory. National Geographic's Ed Yong spoke to the National Center for Atmospheric Research's Jeff Lazo about what went wrong. Lazo explains that the data set used by the researchers is skewed because male hurricane names weren't used at all until 1979 — by which time storm deaths had decreased significantly. The researchers write that they split the data set in two, pre-1979 deaths and post-1979 deaths and got comparable results, but those new sample sizes are too small to judge by.

So there was no real way to account for the discrepancy, writes Yong:

Quote

[The team claims] that the findings “directionally replicated those in the full dataset” but that’s a bit of a fudge. The fact is they couldn’t find a significant link between the femininity of a hurricane’s name and the damage it caused for either the pre-1979 set or the post-1979 one (and a “marginally significant interaction” of p=0.073 doesn’t really count)... The team argues that splitting the data meant there weren’t enough hurricanes in each subset to provide enough statistical power. But that only means we can’t rule out a connection between gender and damage; we can’t soundly confirm one either.

And Lazo tells Yong that some of the deaths included in the data have no business being counted, like those caused by a storm "indirectly." Yong brings the example of someone killed by a falling electrical line during cleanup. "How would gender name influence that sort of fatality?" asks Lazo. Furthermore, those answering the questions aren't necessarily those who would be in a situation to prepare for hurricanes. They might be uninitiated as to the on-the-ground preparation needed before a major storm.

But before we throw away the theory completely, there's still something to be said for examining the subtle ways in which sexism affects our lives:

Quote

Dave Hogg   @davehogg  Follow
I'm willing to believe that the American public is stupid in many ways when discussing gender, but that hurricane-name study is a mess.

5:23 PM - 2 Jun 2014 Reply Retweet

Well said, sir.

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/national/2014/06/hurricane-name-study-debunked/372022/ (http://www.thewire.com/national/2014/06/hurricane-name-study-debunked/372022/)

Title: Re: Do America's Sexist Attitudes Apply to Hurricanes Too?
Post by: Green1 on June 03, 2014, 07:04:46 pm

A local artist in the Marigny section of New Orleans had a beautiful painting of Katrina as a goddess.

She was an African American woman of light, Creole skin and flowing black hair being blown in the winds. The crown on her head was a fluer de lis embossed with a crescent moon and a star. Around her neck was dabloons and beads, and she was dressed as a 1800's voodoo priestess. Her grin was one of the most emotionless and sadistic grins. In her hand, she had a globe with a hurricane heading to the Gulf Coast. Her feet were in dirty, refuse laden water up to her shins. Her eyes glowed of lightning.

the frame was made from wood from the devastation of Katrina.

The ill informed may thing because something has a female name, it is to be taken lightly, but these are idiots. ALL storms like that above Category 3 can be deadly. The female name had no bearing, I was just trapped because I had no car. I survived this lady's wrath. If I ever see something like that coming again, I am running. I almost died in that Hurricane.

No one that lived through what I lived through takes ANY of that lightly.

Title: What's in a (hurricane) name? More deaths: study
Post by: Buster's Uncle on June 03, 2014, 07:07:09 pm

What's in a (hurricane) name? More deaths: study
Reuters
By Sharon Begley  22 hours ago


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A plea for help is seen on the roof of a home flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana September 4, 2005.



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.

That result held up even after the researchers accounted for storm strength.

Hurricane names currently alternate between male and female. Among those the World Meteorological Organization has chosen for 2014: Dolly, Josephine, and Vicky.

When the National Hurricane Center began giving storms human names in 1953 with Alice, it used only women's. The first "male" Atlantic hurricane was Bob, in 1979.

The attempt at gender equality may have backfired.

Based on the analysis of Atlantic hurricanes from 1950 to 2012, when 94 made landfall, the researchers found that names of less severe storms didn't matter. Whether people took precautions or not, the death toll was minimal and no different for male and female names.

But for strong hurricanes, the more feminine the name - as ranked by volunteers on an 11-point scale - the more people it killed.

Behavioral scientist Hazel Markus of Stanford University, who was not involved in the study, called it "very significant" and "proof positive" that gender stereotypes affect behavior even when the male or female isn't a living thing.

The study did not prove why severe hurricanes with female names were deadlier, but hints emerged in lab experiments.

In one, the Illinois team gave 346 volunteers no information about a storm except its name, and asked them to predict its intensity. "Omar," "Marco" and the like were judged more severe than "Fay," "Laura," and their sisters. In four additional experiments, volunteers shown a storm's projected path were up to 34 percent more likely to say they would evacuate ahead of male names than female ones on the same path. Reaction to gender-neutral names like Sandy fell in the middle.

When judging a storm's threat, people "appear to be applying their beliefs about how men and women behave," said co-author Sharon Shavitt, a professor of marketing at Illinois. "This makes a female-named hurricane, especially one with a very feminine name such as Belle or Cindy, seem gentler and less violent."

A spokesman for the National Hurricane Center declined to say whether scientists there find this analysis credible. But "whether the name is Sam or Samantha," Dennis Feltgen said, people must heed evacuation orders.

(Reporting by Sharon Begley; Editing by Nick Zieminski)


http://news.yahoo.com/whats-hurricane-name-more-deaths-study-191412536.html (http://news.yahoo.com/whats-hurricane-name-more-deaths-study-191412536.html)

Title: Study: People fear male-named hurricanes more
Post by: Buster's Uncle on June 03, 2014, 07:11:41 pm

Study: People fear male-named hurricanes more
Associated Press
By SETH BORENSTEIN  17 hours ago


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FILE - This Aug. 30, 2005 file photo shows floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina coverig a portion of New Orleans. A new psychology study shows that people are wrongly less prone to flee from hurricanes with feminine names. Yet the study finds female named storms have been deadlier in the United States than their macho sounding counterparts. Katrina and Sandy are the two deadliest storms to make landfall in the U.S. since names went co-ed in 1979. The study, which didn’t involve experts in meteorology or disaster science, is published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)




WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.

The study, which didn't involve any experts in meteorology or disaster science, is published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Atlantic hurricane season started Sunday.

In six different experiments, more than 1,000 test subjects told behavioral scientists at the University of Illinois in Champaign that they were slightly more likely to evacuate from an oncoming storm named Christopher than Christina, Victor than Victoria, Alexander than Alexandra and Danny than Kate. They found female names less frightening.

"People are looking for meaning in any information that they receive," said study co-author Sharon Shavitt, a professor of marketing. "The name of the storm is providing people with irrelevant information that they actually use."

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.

Hurricane and disaster science experts, such as MIT's Kerry Emanuel, were skeptical at first. Then after more consideration some but not all found merit in the work, noting that it is more about psychology rather than physical science.


(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/oG78lQvM3343olH5DtLIag--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTY3NjtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/a45cb2d38f87f215550f6a7067005571.jpg)
FILE - This Nov. 1, 2012 file photo shows a pile of sand and debris sitting near a house that was damaged by superstorm Sandy in Brant Beach, N.J. A new psychology study shows that people are wrongly less prone to flee from hurricanes with feminine names. Yet the study finds female named storms have been deadlier in the United States than their macho sounding counterparts. Katrina and Sandy are the two deadliest storms to make landfall in the U.S. since names went co-ed in 1979. The study, which didn’t involve experts in meteorology or disaster science, is published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)


Emanuel said confusion over whether 2012's Sandy was called a hurricane or post-tropical storm did cause confusion, so maybe names could make a difference too. He joked that maybe names matter and perhaps meteorologists should start using scarier-sounding ones like Jack-the-Ripper or King Kong.

But Susan Cutter, director of the University of South Carolina's Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute, dismissed the idea that female-named storms are deadlier. She considered the study results just coincidence.

To examine past death rates, Shavitt and doctoral student Kiju Jung used Shavitt's scale that rated names from 1 to 11 in terms of masculinity and femininity. They looked at death rates going back to 1950 and found that, in general, the deadlier storms were more feminine.

However, male-named storms weren't introduced until 1979. Only female names were used for storms from 1953 to 1978. From 1950 to 1952, military-style phonetic names (like Able, Baker, Charlie) were used and before that, there were no official names for storms.

While since 1979, female storms have been deadlier — even with the outlier of Katrina removed — the sample size is so small that the trend from 1979 is not statistically significant. But it is significant when combined with data from 1950, Shavitt said.

Also telling is that the amount of damages is not much different between male and female storms, indicating the big difference is not the size of the storm but how people react to it, Jung said.

This year's hurricane names will be Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gonzalo, Hanna, Isaias, Josephine, Kyle, Laura, Marco, Nana, Omar, Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky and Wilfred.

Jung and Shavitt said one name jumps out at them for danger: Dolly. It's considered highly feminine.

___

Online:

Journal: http://www.pnas.org (http://www.pnas.org)

___

Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears (http://twitter.com/borenbears)


http://news.yahoo.com/study-people-fear-male-named-hurricanes-more-190501410.html (http://news.yahoo.com/study-people-fear-male-named-hurricanes-more-190501410.html)

Title: Re: Do America's Sexist Attitudes Apply to Hurricanes Too?
Post by: Green1 on June 03, 2014, 08:28:20 pm

The picture with the "HELP US" on the roof was 7 blocks from my house.

MY HOUSE: (red circle Alvar and Royal St.)

Title: Re: Do America's Sexist Attitudes Apply to Hurricanes Too?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on June 03, 2014, 08:33:46 pm

I think I've been through that neighborhood, back before in the late 90s.

Title: Re: Do America's Sexist Attitudes Apply to Hurricanes Too?
Post by: Green1 on June 03, 2014, 09:04:06 pm

Quote from: BUncle on June 03, 2014, 08:33:46 pm

I think I've been through that neighborhood, back before in the late 90s.

Miss that place. Now it is nothing but Hollywood folks and people lucky enough to buy the houses when they were cheap and it was the 'hood. It was not the Marigny but the Bywater still had character and there were plenty of dive bars to get lost in.

A renfair dude like yourself back then would not be out of place.

That apartment survived Katrina. The water got a block away from it. A 450 USD a month apartment (1BR/ 1BA with washer and dryer) goes now for 1200 USD a month!

Title: Re: Do America's Sexist Attitudes Apply to Hurricanes Too?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on June 03, 2014, 09:08:15 pm

Just never any upside for the po' folks, is there?

Title: Re: Do America's Sexist Attitudes Apply to Hurricanes Too?
Post by: Green1 on June 03, 2014, 09:19:01 pm

Quote from: BUncle on June 03, 2014, 09:08:15 pm

Just never any upside for the po' folks, is there?

Not in this case.

I eventually moved back to NOLA about 3 or 4 years after the storm. But, I found it increasingly hard to afford New York style rents on Louisiana style paychecks.

It used to be called "The Big Easy" for a reason. Folks accepted you for who you were and did not care as long as you did not screw them over. It was a very social place, and whatever you were into you would find it if you looked. The rents were cheap and you could find a job as long as you could carry a tray or cook something.

Now, it is Yuppy hell. There are no jobs and you need 20/hr to live life to the fullest down there. Add to that the folks that made it cool are long gone.

Yeah. Never underestimate something because it is female. The most viscous females will rip the soul and can kill just as easily as any man.