Gender Differences and Environmental Behaviors SPSS Assignment #1

1. Gender Differences and Environmental Behaviors SPSS Assignment #1 Team: Kelly McFarren, Meg MacWhirter & Meaghan Jordan September 18, 2011

2. Q1) Gender Differences: Engaging in Pro-Environmental Behavior Interpretation of Behaviors and Gender: Women and men engage similarly in most pro-environment behaviors in the survey. Significant differences are correlated with behaviors that are traditionally aligned to gender roles. For example, women play a dominant role in raising children, and, in administrative professions. However, the lines are not strict, which may indicate a behavioral shift. It is interesting that composting (.111>.05), buying organic food or clothing (.438>.05), buying low-energy bulbs (.905>.05), or adding insulation/double glazing, do not have a strong relationship to gender roles (shopping for women and home improvement for men). • Significant differences, with women more highly correlated for 7 out of 18 behaviors: • Buy green cleaning products (.021<.05). • Give or receive hand-me-downs (.000<.05). • Carpool (.002<.05). • Use lower temperature washes in the washing machine (.002<.05). • Turnoff lights when leaving a room (.019<.05). • Print or photocopy double-sided (.021<.05). • Read documents on screen rather than print them out (.017<.05).

3. Q2) Measuring PEB: Conclusions about Gender Interpretation of PEB: From the PEB measure, the mean correlation demonstrates that gender makes a difference when considering pro-environment behaviors. The mean is significantly higher for women, with a score of 8.5175 for men compared to 8.9905 for women. This is scaled to a projected mean of 9 and total of 18 (at a .016 and .018 significance, respectively <.05). However, when adjusting the data to split among high and low PEB’s, neither women nor men are correlated to belonging to one group over another. This shows that our split is not biased to one gender when performing the analysis (.173>.05).

4. Q3) Marketing Management: Adjusting the Promotional Mix Marketing Considerations based on Gender: Given that women and men are not significantly different in most environmental behaviors, it would be practical to determine an additional underlying variable to inform green marketing efforts. Women are household decision-makers in most cases (single and some married men are exceptions). Traditional household products, such as laundry detergent and cleaners, already target women. “Green” could be a differentiator within these product types to improve purchase, in addition to gender. • Practical Considerations for Marketing Promotion Include: • Research more variables than gender, like geography, to understand and impact green habits. • Explore whether traditionally feminine tendency toward nurturing is aligned with green purchases. • Group data to better understand the significance of different groups of men and women, including: children/no children, single/married, and others. • Incorporate messaging that does not erode brand equity or product positioning to the gender it is intended for.

5. Q4) Gender Patterns: Attitude Questions Interpretation of Attitudes: The pattern of results indicates that women are more highly correlated to pro-environmental attitudes than men. Specifically, women answer more strongly to questions involving nurturing or trustworthiness. Alternatively, men’s responses are more highly correlated with science / technology. It is important to notice the direction of responses from 1 (least) to 5 (most). Greater or less than 3 determines strength, and for some questions disagreeing exhibits pro-environmentalism. It would be valuable to consider the wording of such questions including “delicate” and “exploitation” which may create gender bias. Overall, it is consistent to these questions that female attitudes are more proactive toward the environment. Attitude Questions Findings: 9 of the 12 questions are gender correlated: The balance of nature is very delicate and upset by human activities (.000) = women agree. Plants and animals do not exist primarily for human use (.000) = women agree. One of the most important reasons for conservation is to preserve wild areas (.001) = women agree. Exploitation of natural resources should be stopped, in order to protect the natural environment (.000) = women agree. Modifying the environment for human use seldom causes serious problems (.004) = women disagree. Developments in science mean that we will be able to maintain our standard of living without having to conserve = women disagree. The information I receive about environmental issues is trustworthy (.000) = women agree. There are no limits to growth for nations like the United States (.027) = men disagree. Technological advances will solve many environmental problems (.000) = men agree.

6. Q5) Additional Question One new question that can aid in determining motivations behind green actions by women and men is: • Are male or female opinions more likely to change once they receive negative or positive information about a company (as exhibited in the survey scenario)? The answer to this question would allow us to see if there is a correlation among men or women to change attitudes based on new information. This could support our marketing efforts to target one gender with company information.