Do men and women think about climate change differently?
For a look behind the scenes of our data journalism, sign up to Off the Charts, our weekly newsletter The disastrous effects of climate change are plain to see: in recent weeks devastating wildfires have torn through large swathes of Europe and heatwaves have killed more than 1,000 people in Portugal and Spain. But attitudes towards climate change vary significantly. A recent study found that two factors can predict concern about the warming world: GDP and gender (see chart 1). Sarah Bush and Amanda Clayton, two political scientists, drew on nine cross-national surveys and focus groups that together covered more than 100 countries between 2010 and 2021. First, they found that people surveyed in poorer countries rated climate change as a more serious problem than those in wealthier countries. They were also more likely to respond that they expect to be personally affected by a changing climate. That is hardly surprising. Poorer countries tend to be less prepared and thus more vulnerable to extreme weather, such as heatwaves and floods. The more peculiar finding was how peoples gender correlated with their responses. Most people, of any gender, recognise that climate change is a threat. But in more wealthy countries men were more likely than women to answer that they were not concerned about it. Take America. In one survey by Pew Research Centre, a think-tank, 20% of men said that climate change is not a problem, while only 8% of women agreed. But as GDP per person decreases, the chasm between men and women narrows. In Britain, the worlds fifth-largest economy, 11% of men answered that they were not concerned about climate change compared with 4% of women. The gap narrowed further still in South Africa, to a difference of just two percentage points. In Uganda, one of the worlds poorest countries, the pattern narrowly reversed: 2.4% of the women surveyed said that they were not concerned about climate change, compared with only 1.7% of men. The reasons for this gap are complex and highly dependent on variables in rich and poor countries. The gap in wealthy countries persisted among men and women regardless of their level of education, household income or political viewsso these characteristics alone do not explain the difference. Climate concern in wealthy countries dropped especially dramatically among men (see chart 2). Studies have found that men in rich countries have a bigger carbon footprint than women, so they may feel they have more to lose from policies that limit emissions. Indeed the authors found that men surveyed in wealthy countries were 50% more likely than women to say that they feared a financial toll from green policies. Even if this is the case, dismissing the risks of climate change is dangerously short-sighted. The consequences for everyone of a warming world will be far more painful. .