TY - JOUR PY - 2015// TI - Gender, trust and cooperation in environmental social dilemmas JO - Social science research A1 - Irwin, Kyle A1 - Edwards, Kimberly A1 - Tamburello, Jeffrey A. SP - 328 EP - 342 VL - 50 IS - N2 - This research addresses gender differences in environmental protection efforts. Recent work indicates that, across a variety of domains, women are more generous, charitable, and prosocial than men. Despite above-average levels of these motivators for cooperation, considerable experimental research points to no difference in cooperation between genders. What can explain women's lower-than-expected cooperation levels? Prior research indicates that, compared to men, women are less trusting and respond to fear incentives in social dilemmas - they are concerned about being exploited. We test these arguments in the context of environmental behaviors and argue that lower trust and greater responses to fear incentives mean that women's cooperation is predicated on trust. For men, trust does not predict environmental cooperation. The current research represents the first empirical test of these arguments. Using data from the General Social Survey we focus on private sphere behaviors and political participation and predict an interaction between gender and trust on cooperation. The results support this prediction.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 0049-089X UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2014.09.002 ID - ref1 ER -