January
03
Tags
It’s Not Psychology, Stupid
Last week, the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch website posted an article opining that psychology explains why the cars with the highest percentage of male ownership (Lamborghini, McLaren, Ferrari, etc.) are almost exclusively foreign luxury and/or exotic brands.
Here’s the ownership chart from their article:
Take a look at that, and then indulge me a minute…
…
Seriously? Seriously?
I propose an alternative, non-psychological explanation for the chart above. Forgive me for being blunt, but this is just a little bit obvious.
MEN ARE PAID DISPROPORTIONATELY MORE THAN WOMEN.
There. I said it. The chart above has very little to do with psychology, and very much to do with income disparity, a.k.a the gender wage gap.
Look, far be it from me to beat the inequality drum. That is not my thing. But facts are facts. Look at the CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies. Look at all the Forbes lists. Look at the heads of state. Overwhelmingly XY chromosomes.
Men disproportionately buy Lamborghinis, McLarens, Ferraris, Maseratis, etc. because it is men who can disproportionately afford Lamborghinis, McLarens, Ferraris and Maseratis. The women I know who can afford one of the cars on that list own one of the cars on that list. I can think of about three of them.
I’m not saying there’s no psychology involved. I think it’s likely that, if you offered a man and a woman of equal financial ability the choice between a Lamborghini and a high-end Mercedes, the man would probably be more likely to choose the Lamborghini and the woman the Mercedes (not me, though!). But that chart is a red herring, and it renders the whole premise of the article half-baked at best.
Just saying.
I’ll go back to knitting now. 🙂
MOTORista 
I already have sweaters – knit me some work gloves!
I must admit to a disadvantage here – I grew up in a neighborhood (and a decade) where we did not even think about buying foreign cars when we eventually became rich and famous. We assumed that we would be driving American cars – albeit souped-up versions with turbo-charged engines and Hearst shifters and Holley carbs and racing suspensions. And we would all have shops of our own to tinker with everything from the oil pan bolts to the exhaust pipe hangers. Sure, we drove foreign cars, but the foreign cars we had access to (Fiats, Volkswagens, Peugeots) were cheap and ubiquitous rust-bucket cast-offs which could be had for a song, and lasted about as long between rebuilds. We only drove them because we couldn’t afford the cars of our dreams – the Shelbys, Camaros, Corvettes, Trans Ams, and Challengers. So the deciding factor for our future automobile purchases was not the “coolness” factor inherent in the foreign sports models, but the idea that we could go down to the corner auto parts store where our friend Wally (the gearhead geek behind the counter) could find us good deals on all the high-performance kits which we would be installing ourselves.
Perhaps the rich folk can afford to buy the fancy exotic/foreign models, but then they also have to be able to afford to take them to the fancy exotic/foreign shops. What fun is that?
As far as the income disparity is concerned, I cannot speak to it. We aren’t allowed to discuss salary at work. And none of my well-to-do acquaintances at work have purchased high-end foreign cars; most of the men bought either SUVs or Shelbys (OK, one of ’em bought a Porsche, but it was an old used model); the women bought MINIs and Miatas. Mine is probably not a good sample group for a statistical analysis.
I have read numerous articles stating that with respect to car purchases men value power and women value safety. That is of course a stereotypical generalization since everyone’s motives are different. But I believe that people (male and female) will buy the best car they can get for the money they have available. It would be interesting to poll some of my wealthy friends to find out what their chief motivation was – and if they would have chosen differently if they had a bit more money (i.e. salary) available.