The effects of gender on climate change knowledge and concern in the American public

Abstract

This study tests theoretical arguments about gender differences in scientific knowledge and environmental concern using 8 years of Gallup data on climate change knowledge and concern in the US general public. Contrary to expectations from scientific literacy research, women convey greater assessed scientific knowledge of climate change than do men. Consistent with much existing sociology of science research, women underestimate their climate change knowledge more than do men. Also, women express slightly greater concern about climate change than do men, and this gender divide is not accounted for by differences in key values and beliefs or in the social roles that men and women differentially perform in society. Modest yet enduring gender differences on climate change knowledge and concern within the US general public suggest several avenues for future research, which are explored in the conclusion.

Explaining topic prevalence in answers to open-ended survey questions about climate change

“…This agrees with earlier findings that women express more scientifically accurate climate change knowledge and less climate scepticism than men 7,9,12 . Nevertheless, the result contrasts with studies using closed questions, where women tend to be more concerned than men 12 . In our study, this elevated concern, confirmed by the closed questions of our own poll, does not translate into a higher likelihood of using words related to future impacts.…”

“…There are tendencies among individuals with university education to choose responses that fit the Future/Impact frame rather than the Money/Consumption frame, but only the effect on the latter topic is borderline significant. This is somewhat surprising given that education usually predicts significant variation in opinion 7,8,10,12 , but agrees with Shwom's study using open-ended survey questions 17 . Thus, although educational effects clearly exist in closed questions on climate change, education has less of an effect in determining what people think of as important in the context of climate change.…”

Public disclosure for carbon abatement: African decision-makers in a PROPER public good experiment

“…In addition, females polluted more than males. This result is quite unexpected, since studies have found that climate change often burdens women more than men, that marginalization of women makes them more vulnerable to climate change impacts than men, and that women are generally more concerned about climate change than men (Korkala, Hugg, & Jaakkola, 2014;McCright, 2010;Habtezion, 2012;Olsson et al, 2014). 10 Furthermore, the subjects who were of the opinion that it is unfair for Africa to reduce emissions polluted more (kept 2.7 more red cards) than their counterparts who thought it was fair.…”

Influencing Carbon Behaviours: What Psychological and Demographic Factors Contribute to Individual Differences in Home Energy Use Reduction and Transportation Mode Decisions?

“…Income has been positively related to knowledge of climate change, but more strongly positively linked to self-reported knowledge of climate change (McCright, 2010). Similarly, though residential energy use increases with income, it is still possible to expect higher income to be linked to higher reported energy saving behaviour (McCright, 2010).…”