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Gender Prejudice Is One More Thing Electric Cars Have to Fight with

If you're one of the 372,000 Tesla Model 3 reservation holders or have been impressed by the recently announced Chevrolet Bolt maximum range and think about buying the car, we have bad news for you: your testosterone levels might have dropped to unprecedented lows.
Tesla Motors Model 3 1 photo
Photo: Tesla Motors
How can electric vehicles have any influence on the hormones inside your body? What has Musk done this time? Nothing, don't send him hate emails, it's not his fault. And don't get your blood tested either, it's all fine. No, it turns out that the problem is with other people's perception of you once you show you care about the environment, which is what most will think if they hear you've bought an electric car.

According to a recent study mentioned by The Washington Post, we tend to associate eco-conscious behavior with femininity, and since all men like to project themselves as the alpha dogs they're not, they will tend to stay away from certain products that are branded as "green." Think about it: this might why Tesla had so much success compared to other electric vehicles: instead of insisting on the cars' eco-friendly attributes, Tesla did so with their lightning-quick acceleration. Suddenly, the electric car wasn't something you could drive to the supermarket guilt-free, but a vehicle good for shaming sports cars on the drag strip.

The research was carried out by a team at the University of Notre Dame led by business professor James Wilkie. They set up a series of tests which ranged from online quizzes to fake shopping coupons for batteries, but in all cases, the results were conclusive and consistent: men showed an aversion toward "green products," while women didn't seem to be biased at all.

As always, the media might bear some fault for the way men react to these situations. For years, people who care about the environment have been portrayed in a less than flattering manner, at least as far as their masculinity goes. For those who feel even a little bit insecure, that's enough to keep them away from an electric car. It's also how people ended up buying absurd gas guzzlers such as the Hummer H1, for example.

It might seem like this study is a bit "doh!" moment, but if that were the case, then why didn't more companies do the same as Tesla? And even if they didn't make their products teleport from zero to 60 mph, they could have at least worked a little on the exterior design. Just look at the BMW i3. Who imagined for one second that men would buy an electric car that, on top of that, also resembled a British Bull Dog? And let's not even get started on the Renault ZOE.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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