Religion Does Matter for Climate Change Attitudes and Behavior

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 ex...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2015-08, Vol.10 (8), p.e0134868-e0134868
Main Authors: Morrison, Mark, Duncan, Roderick, Parton, Kevin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Attitude
Attitude change
Attitudes
Australia
Behavior
Buddhism
Christianity
Climate and human activity
Climate Change
Demographics
Demography
Environmental attitudes
Evangelicalism
Global temperature changes
Humans
Religion
Religious groups
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary: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 over nature. Differences in attitude and behavior between these religious groups suggest the importance of engaging denominations to encourage change in attitudes and behavior among their members.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0134868