Activating values for encouraging pro-environmental behavior: the role of religious fundamentalism and willingness to sacrifice (original) (raw)
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‘Our Only Heaven’: Nature Veneration, Quest Religion, and Pro-Environment Behavior
Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 2013
Utilizing the Pure Pantheism/Dualistic Theism/Nihilistic Atheism sacrality scale as a heuristic, I survey sociological/social psychological studies assessing whether people’s values and religious worldviews affect the likelihood of pro-environment behavior. One set of studies divides environmental values into three types: (1) self-interest (or egoistic) values; (2) humanistic altruism, and (3) biospheric altruism. Another study analyzes three types of self-construal as pro-environment indicators: (1) independent, (2) interdependent, and (3) metapersonal. Analyzing these models in light of the tripartite social psychological model of (1) religion as means; (2) religion as an end unto itself; and (3) religion as quest, I demonstrate that both the biospheric and metapersonal orientations, and perceptions that tend toward the pantheistic end of the sacrality scale, are the strongest predictors of pro-environment behavior. Put simply, nature veneration is predictive of pro-environmental behavior. I further argue that available data make the testing of this hypothesis worth pursuing whether nature-venerating religions are growing in the United States and beyond.
Faith and the Environment: Religious Beliefs and Attitudes on Environmental Policy
American Journal of Political Science, 1995
Theory: Conservative Christian theology contains a set of beliefs that run counter to the philosophy supporting environmentalism. Hypotheses: Conservative eschatology (Biblical literalism, End Times thinking), religious tradition, and religious commitment should be negatively related to support for environmental policy. Data: Using data from four national surveys of clergy, religious activists, political-party contributors, and the mass public, we analyze the impact of religious variables on attitudes toward environmental protection. Results: We find that conservative eschatology, religious tradition, and religious commitment all have strong bivariate associations with environmentalism. In multivariate analyses, however, conservative eschatology proves by far the strongest religious predictor of environmental perspectives, although other measures exert occasional influence.
Religion Does Matter for Climate Change Attitudes and Behavior
PloS one, 2015
Little research has focused on the relationship between religion and climate change attitudes and behavior. Further, while there have been some studies examining the relationship between environmental attitudes and religion, most are focused on Christian denominations and secularism, and few have examined other religions such as Buddhism. Using an online survey of 1,927 Australians we examined links between membership of four religious groupings (Buddhists, Christian literalists and non-literalists, and Secularists) and climate change attitudes and behaviors. Differences were found across religious groups in terms of their belief in: (a) human induced climate change, (b) the level of consensus among scientists, (c) their own efficacy, and (d) the need for policy responses. We show, using ordinal regression, that religion explains these differences even after taking into account socio-demographic factors, knowledge and environmental attitude, including belief in man's dominion ov...
Jonathan Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory identifies five moral axes that can influence human motivation to take action on vital problems like climate change. The theory focuses on five moral foundations, including compassion, fairness, purity, authority, and ingroup loyalty; these have been found to differ between liberals and conservatives as well as Democrats and Republicans. Here we show, based on the Cornell National Social Survey (USA), that valuations of compassion and fairness were strong, positive predictors of willingness to act on climate change, whereas purity had a non-significant tendency in the positive direction (p = 0.07). Ingroup loyalty and authority were not supported as important predictor variables using model selection (DAICc). Compassion and fairness were more highly valued by liberals, whereas purity, authority, and in-group loyalty were more highly valued by conservatives. As in previous studies, participants who were younger, more liberal, and reported greater belief in climate change, also showed increased willingness to act on climate change. Our research supports the potential importance of moral foundations as drivers of intentions with respect to climate change action, and suggests that compassion, fairness, and to a lesser extent, purity, are potential moral pathways for personal action on climate change in the USA.
Personal values, beliefs, and ecological risk perception
Risk Analysis, 2006
A mail survey on ecological risk perception was administered in the summer of 2002 to a randomized sample of the lay public and to selected risk professionals at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). The ranking of 24 ecological risk items, from global climate change to commercial fishing, reveals that the lay public is more concerned about low-probability, high-consequence risks whereas the risk professionals are more concerned about risks that pose long-term, ecosystem-level impacts. To test the explanatory power of the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory for risk perception, respondents were questioned about their personal values, spiritual beliefs, and worldviews. The most consistent predictors of the risk rankings are belief in the new ecological paradigm (NEP) and Schwartz's altruism. The NEP and Schwartz's altruism explain from 19% to 46% of the variance in the risk rankings. Religious beliefs account for less than 6% of the variance and do not show a consistent pattern in predicting risk perception although religious fundamentalists are generally less concerned about the risk items. While not exerting as strong an impact, social-structural variables do have some influence on risk perception. Ethnicities show no effect on the risk scales but the more educated and financially well-off are less concerned about the risk items. Political leanings have no direct influence on risk rankings, but indirectly affect rankings through the NEP. These results reveal that the VBN theory is a plausible explanation for the differences measured in the respondents' perception of ecological risk.
Measuring Pro-Environmental Behavior Triggered by Environmental Values
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Pro-environmental behavior in addressing climate change is influenced by multi-dimensional factors—knowledge, values, intention and sociodemographic background. Correlational studies between environmental values and environmental behaviors have not been able to determine values or behaviors that need to be given priority in future interventions. Therefore, this study firstly determined the environmental values and pro-environmental behavior that are easy or difficult to embrace by 152 respondents with low socioeconomic background. Secondly, we identified the extent pro-environmental behavior is triggered by environmental values. This survey study employs the Rasch analysis model. The respondents had difficulty in associating themselves with biospheric values however readily demonstrated consideration toward altruistic values, especially related to concerns for future generations. In terms of environmental conservation behavior, the respondents were not willing to relinquish comfort ...
Religion and Motives for Sustainable Behaviors: A Cross-Cultural Comparison and Contrast
Journal of Business Research, 2015
Many previous studies investigate altruism’s influence on sustainable behaviors, yet few studies examine the more foundational relation between religion and sustainable consumption-related behaviors. Therefore, this paper builds on values research, self-determination theory, and inoculation theory to examine the link between religion and sustainable behaviors from a sample of both South Korean and US consumers (N=388, average age=33). Results show a moderating effect of religiosity with consumers who are more religious being more likely to participate in sustainable behaviors (e.g., purchasing green cleaning supplies, recycling, purchasing organic foods). In contrast to Christians and atheists, highly religious Buddhists more likely participate in sustainable behaviors, with little difference between locations. Interestingly, differences exist with minority religions (e.g., Buddhists in the US) that change agents must note to maximize the effectiveness of campaigns encouraging sustainable behaviors.
Political Ideology and the Value-Basis Theory for Environmental Attitudes
2017
In this study, I seek to examine the relationship between political ideology and the value-basis theory for environmental attitudes. Specifically, I aim to investigate how political ideology as measured by one's position on the liberal--conservative spectrum relates to the three-factor value-basis theory for environmental attitudes.
2015
In a controversial Science article published in 1967, Lynn White blamed Judeo-Christian scriptures for the planet's ecological crisis. White claimed that scriptural dogmas of human domination have too easily justified environmental exploitation. White's critics responded that the Bible commends ecological stewardship, which potentially restrains otherwise ruinous exploits. Previous studies empirically assessing these claims show mixed results. We propose that the effects of religious fundamentalism and attention to scripture must be distinguished. A key novelty of our paper is the use of reported frequency of scriptural reading to assess the salience of scripture in an individuals' life. White's hypothesis predicts that reading scripture should be associated with (a) increased fundamentalism, and (b) lower pro-environmental intentions. In contrast, the counterarguments of White's critics predict that (c) higher frequency of scripture reading should be associated with higher pro-environmental intentions. We tested these predictions with a Bayesian Structural Equation Model assessing the direct and indirect (mediated) effects of scripture reading on pro-environmental intentions. Our data consisted of a crosssectional sample of self-identified Christian participants (N = 1,012) in the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study. Supporting White, we find clear evidence for a positive link between frequency of scripture reading and religious fundamentalism, and between religious fundamentalism and lower pro-environmental intentions. However, in line with White's critics, we also find evidence for a positive direct effect of reading scripture on pro-environmental intentions (albeit at a lower confidence level than that of White's predicted effects). Although the positive and negative effects are similar in magnitude, a negative effect, which is mediated by religious fundamentalism, appears to be slightly more probable. Taken together, our findings indicate that attention to scripture might be associated with moral ambivalence about pro-environmental intentions.