According to “Assessing the Validity of the Post-Materialism Index” (American Political Science Review [1999]: 649–664), one may be able to predict an individual’s level of support for ecology based on demographic and ideological characteristics. The multiple regression model proposed by the authors was

where the variables are defined as follows: y = ecology score (higher values indicate a greater concern for ecology) x₁ = age times 10 x₂ = income (in thousands of dollars) x3 = gender (1 = male, 0 = female) x4 = race (1 = white, 0 = nonwhite) x5 = education (in years) x6 = ideology (4 = conservative, 3 = right of center, 2 = middle of the road, 1 = left of center, and 0 = liberal) x7 = social class (4 = upper, 3 = upper middle, 2 = middle, 1 = lower middle, and 0 = lower) x8 = postmaterialist (1 if postmaterialist, 0 otherwise) x9 = materialist (1 if materialist, 0 otherwise)

a. Suppose you knew a person with the following characteristics: a 25-year-old, white female with a college degree (16 years of education), who has a $32,000-peryear job, is from the upper middle class, and considers herself left of center, but who is neither a materialist nor a postmaterialist. Predict her ecology score.

b. If the woman described in Part (a) were Hispanic rather than white, how would the prediction change?

c. Given that the other variables are the same, what is the estimated mean difference in ecology score for men and women?

d. How would you interpret the coefficient of x₂?

e. Comment on the numerical coding of the ideology and social class variables. Can you suggest a better way of incorporating these two variables into the model?

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