Yes, men are gullible, but why won’t they ask for directions? p2

We may never know the answer to the question posed in the title of this series of posts. Fortunately, we do have research findings from Insure.com that offer us some insight into whether men or women tend to believe some common myths about insurance.

When we left off in our last post, we were reviewing the study’s results with insurance myths about auto insurance. We saved two for today, two that will surely be good news for owners of Little Red Corvettes and sports car fans everywhere.

Insurance premiums are higher for red cars, because police are more likely to pull red cars over for speeding. Nearly half (46 percent) of all respondents believed this, and the gender split was just about equal. It turns out that the 2015 Porsche Boxster in Guards Red will cost no more to insure than the 2015 Porsche Boxster in Mahogany Metallic. The color of the vehicle has no bearing on auto insurance rates.

Size matters with insurance premiums: Smaller cars have lower premiums. Fewer than half of the respondents believed this, but 58 percent of the believers were men. They are, of course, mistaken. It’s not because smaller cars are sportier, either. Inexperienced drivers tend to buy smaller cars, and inexperienced drivers tend to file more claims than experienced drivers. Safety ratings figure in, too: In accidents, passengers in small cars tend to suffer more expensive injuries than passengers in mid-size and larger vehicles.

In our next post, we will tackle myths about homeowners insurance and, just in time for the open enrollment period, about health insurance and the Affordable Care Act.

Source: Insurance Journal, “10 Insurance Myths (Men Are More Likely Than Women to Believe 8 of Them),” Oct. 21, 2014

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