An Immediate Response to Environmentally Disturbing News and the Environmental Attitudes of College Students

Examined the effects of a news article about a devastating oil spill and inadequate clean-up efforts on the environmental attitudes of 31 male and 34 female college students (aged 18-22 yrs). The experimental group read an article describing a Russian oil spill, while the control group read a non-environmental article. Both groups also read a buffer article. Ss then answered a multiple choice questionnaire measuring environmental attitudes. The type of article read did not affect responses. However, gender emerged as a significant variable, with women reflecting more pro-environmental attitudes than men. This difference could either be attributed to the greater immediate responsiveness or to the greater empathy of women.