Politicians who discredit global warming risk may be losing a big chunk of female voters!
Women who consider the long-term consequences of their actions are more likely to adopt a liberal political orientation and take consumer and political steps to reduce global warming, a new US study has found.
Jeff Joireman, associate professor of marketing at Washington State University, demonstrated that "future-oriented" women are the voting bloc most strongly motivated to invest money, time and taxes towards reducing global warming.
Previous studies have shown that women and those with liberal viewpoints are more likely to act to protect the environment than men and conservatives.
Joireman's model helps explain why this occurs and is the first to document the combined influence of gender and concern for the future.
Joireman and his team polled 299 US residents, with an age range of 18-75. Forty-eight per cent of the respondents were female and 80 per cent were Caucasian.
Women scored higher than men on liberal political orientation, environmental values, belief in global warming and willingness to pay to reduce global warming when their concern with future consequences was high.
But it wasn't a simple gender difference. Women scored lower than men on liberal political orientation and willingness to pay when their concern with future consequences was low.
Joireman said a specific chain of influences makes future-oriented women more likely to take action. First, they are more politically liberal.
Liberals are more likely to value the environment, which makes them more likely to believe in global warming, he said.
"Future-oriented women, for example, might be more willing to pay higher prices for fuel-efficient cars, alternative forms of transportation and energy-efficient appliances. They might also eat less meat - all to help lower greenhouse gas emissions," he said.
The findings were published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
