I call BS on this one. First, the implicit assumption seems to be that hurricanes have approximately the same strength and it's people's expectations that is th

I call BS on this one. First, the implicit assumption seems to be that hurricanes have approximately the same strength and it's people's expectations that is the dominant factor in the death tool, i.e. (from the paper's abstract): "Feminine-named hurricanes (vs. masculine-named hurricanes) cause significantly more deaths, apparently because they lead to lower perceived risk and consequently less preparedness." Now I'm no meteorologist, but it seems like this may or may not be true. Since the male and female names alternate this may be pointing to an underlying mechanism that modulates the strength of consecutive storms' strength. Second, up to 1978 hurricanes were given only female names (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames_history.shtml http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames_history.shtml). Where does that leave this theory?