Males tend to die, females tend to pass away

Abstract

The hypothesis that obituary notices will be less direct/less emotional in the language used for females than for males was tested. A total of 703 consecutive obituaries were examined in a local newspaper and instances of whether the person died or passed away was noted for males and females. A 2 (gender) × 2 (died, passed away) Chi-Square analysis supported the hypothesis: X² (1) = 8.87, p < .01. Thus, males are more likely to die, whereas females are more likely to pass away.