Cultural diversity is increasing in the US, which is likely to have an impact on preferences toward future energy policy.

This research investigates people’s lived experience and preferences through a nationally representative survey (n = 3000) regarding the energy system, and how these relate to cultural group and other demographics.

Our study highlights the influence of cultural background in the US, alongside educational achievement and income level on perceptions toward the energy system and energy policy.

Through rigorous multivariate statistical evaluation of cultural groupings, income and education on energy system preferences and lived experience, we identified cultural groups that experience energy affordability differently, irrespective of income or educational achievement.

For energy policy issue and factor importance, we identify a positive link with educational achievement and income, varying across cultural grouping.

Overall, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders and American Indian and Native Alaskans had a muted response to energy policy issues and energy system factors compared to their peers.

Our findings identified a need to enhance overall educational outcomes to engender more positive attitudes toward improving the environment, and the need for policy makers to be aware of cultural group preferences to enable development of energy policies which improve recognition justice outcomes.

美国的文化多样性正在增加，这可能会影响对未来能源政策的偏好。

本研究通过一项关于能源系统的全国代表性调查 (n = 3000) 来调查人们的生活经历和偏好，以及这些与文化群体和其他人口统计数据的关系。

我们的研究强调了美国文化背景、教育成就和收入水平对能源系统和能源政策看法的影响。

通过对文化群体、收入和教育对能源系统偏好和生活经验的严格多元统计评估，我们确定了对能源负担能力有不同体验的文化群体，无论收入或教育成就如何。

对于能源政策问题和因素重要性，我们确定了与教育成就和收入的正相关关系，因文化分组而异。

总体而言，与同龄人相比，夏威夷原住民或其他太平洋岛民以及美洲印第安人和阿拉斯加原住民对能源政策问题和能源系统因素的反应较为温和。

我们的研究结果表明，需要提高整体教育成果，以产生对改善环境更积极的态度，并且政策制定者需要了解文化群体的偏好，以制定能改善认可正义成果的能源政策。