October 24, 2019 | Read Time: 1 minute
Climate change and racial discrimination are the issues that young adults care about the most, according to a new study of people ages 18 to 30.
The study by the Cause and Social Influence program at Influence|SG found nearly equal support for those two issues by both men and women, with about 30 percent of each group citing climate change as the most important issue and about 25 percent of each group citing racial issues as most important.
However, men and women diverged significantly on other issues. Thirty-six percent of women said MeToo was the movement they cared most about, while only 16 percent of men put #MeToo at the top of their list. Lead researcher Derrick Feldmann said more research is needed to determine why such a large gap persists even among young men.
When asked which institutions they trusted most (respondents could choose more than one), 79 percent of young people cited nonprofits, followed by social movements (77 percent), local government (71 percent), the federal government at (59 percent), and corporations at (56 percent).
The survey was conducted over 10 days in September. Respondents were a nationally representative pool of 1,100 participants, and the results have a 3 percent margin of error, the study states.
Dan Parks is managing editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
