In the United States, meteorologists name each tropical storm, alternating between male names and female names. Researchers wanted to test whether storm names influence people’s response and preparation for an impending flood. The researchers told all participants the same facts about an impending tropical storm, with the only difference being that for half the participants the storm was given a female name and for the other half the storm was given a male name. The male and female names they used were similar (e.g., Alexandra/Alexander, Patricia/Patrick). After reading the description, participants were asked to estimate the amount of rain that the storm would produce. The researchers found that participants estimated the storms with female names would produce more inches of rain than the storms with male names.
