Losing Ground? Attitudes Toward Responsible Investment Among Young Koreans and Korean Women

Western research finds younger individuals and women are more inclined toward responsible investing due to heightened concerns about corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Our original survey and focus group discussions challenge these findings in South Korea, where younger Koreans are less supportive of responsible investing and women show no greater interest than men. We suggest this reflects South Korea's unique and compressed experience with second modernity, a phase in which institutions of the first (industrial) modernity erode while their values and objectives may persist. The rapid decline of collectivist institutions that supported Korea's industrialization produced risk‐averse individualization devoid of the positive individualism and post‐material value shifts seen in the West. Facing hyper‐competition and insecurity, young Koreans pursue narrow material self‐interest rather than social solidarity. Meanwhile, shifts in gender norms have lagged behind institutional breakdowns, leaving women feeling disconnected from ESG agendas despite their greater vulnerability to corporate misgovernance.