Situational materialism increases climate change scepticism in men compared to women

Abstract Men appear to be more sceptical towards climate change and less pro-environmental than women. On the other hand, priming certain values (e.g., wealth) undermines support for pro-environmental behaviours. Based on these findings, we explored whether situational materialism may amplify the differences between women and men in scepticism towards climate change. In three experiments we presented participants with either images portraying luxury consumption or neutral images, and then we measured scepticism. Study 1 showed that men increased their scepticism over women when they were exposed to luxury consumption, but not to neutral images. Studies 2–3 replicated these results and further explored the influence of gender roles. Conformity to male roles was associated with greater scepticism in both studies, and such association was amplified by situational materialism, but only in Study 2. Thus, situational materialism in men and conformity to male roles, in general, might hamper the fight against climate change.