Gender Influence on the Household Electrical Energy Consumption Behavior

Abstract

Increased energy consumption can lead to depletion of fossil energy reserves that can pose a threat to energy supply in Indonesia. One way to increase the intensity of energy savings is to make changes in consumer behavior. The development of gender roles, abilities, and attention led most researchers to argue that women are more consistent in attention to environmental change than men. Women are more concerned with environmental quality and participate in environmental activities. Thus, this research tries to determine the influence of psychological factors on the behavior of household electrical energy consumption in term of gender differences. This study used questionnaires distributed using Google Docs to household electrical respondents several in Indonesia. Referring to ABC (Antecedents-Behaviour-Consequences) model of consumer behavior, the total of 808, questionnaires from 526 male respondents and 282 female respondents were successfully collected. The data were processed by the Partial Least Square Equation Modeling Model (SEM-PLS) using Smart-PLS software. The study concluded that,if given the consequences, women have higher influence to the behavior of electrical energy consumption than men. Overall psychological factors have a positive and significant influence on the behavior of electric energy consumption in Indonesia.