IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i20p13242-d942174.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relationships between Spirituality, Religious Fundamentalism and Environmentalism: The Mediating Role of Right-Wing Authoritarianism

Author

Listed:
  • Sebastian Binyamin Skalski

    (Faculty of Philosophy and Education, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, 85072 Eichstätt, Germany
    Faculty of Education, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, 01938 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Teresa Loichen

    (Faculty of Philosophy and Education, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, 85072 Eichstätt, Germany)

  • Loren L. Toussaint

    (Department of Psychology, Luther College, Decorah, IA 52101, USA)

  • Patrycja Uram

    (Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 00950 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Anna Kwiatkowska

    (Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 00950 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Janusz Surzykiewicz

    (Faculty of Philosophy and Education, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, 85072 Eichstätt, Germany
    Faculty of Education, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, 01938 Warsaw, Poland)

Abstract

According to past research, religious attitudes can strongly influence individuals’ beliefs and behaviors. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationships between spirituality (the Scale of Spirituality; dimensions include religious spirituality, expanding consciousness, searching for meaning, sensitivity to art, doing good, and sensitivity to inner beauty), religious fundamentalism (the Religious Fundamentalism Scale), support for right-wing authoritarianism (the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale), climate concerns (the Environmental Concern Scale), and pro-environmental behavior (the Pro-Environmental Behavior Scale). The cross-sectional study involved 512 Poles aged 18–63 (M = 34.63, SD = 5.96; Mdn = 33), including 51% females. Multiple regression analysis revealed that two dimensions of spirituality (sensitivity to art and doing good) and religious fundamentalism are significant and opposite predictors of climate concern and pro-environmental behavior. Spirituality appeared to foster increased climate concern and caring behavior, while religious fundamentalism negatively predicted the same variables. Mediation analysis revealed that the relationship between religion and environmentalism could be explained in part by differences in support for right-wing authoritarianism (authoritarianism itself was negatively related to environmental outcomes). In addition, analysis of variance revealed that believers (70% of participants in the study were Catholic) showed significantly lower scores regarding climate concerns and pro-environmental behavior than non-believers, yet the inclusion of support for right-wing authoritarianism as a covariate in the equation reduced intergroup differences to statistical insignificance. The data obtained suggest that religious attitudes and socio-political views may play important roles in solving environmental problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Sebastian Binyamin Skalski & Teresa Loichen & Loren L. Toussaint & Patrycja Uram & Anna Kwiatkowska & Janusz Surzykiewicz, 2022. "Relationships between Spirituality, Religious Fundamentalism and Environmentalism: The Mediating Role of Right-Wing Authoritarianism," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-11, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:20:p:13242-:d:942174
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13242/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13242/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Min Gon Chung & Hana Kang & Thomas Dietz & Patricia Jaimes & Jianguo Liu, 2019. "Activating values for encouraging pro-environmental behavior: the role of religious fundamentalism and willingness to sacrifice," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 9(4), pages 371-385, December.
    2. Janis L Dickinson & Poppy McLeod & Robert Bloomfield & Shorna Allred, 2016. "Which Moral Foundations Predict Willingness to Make Lifestyle Changes to Avert Climate Change in the USA?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-11, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Julie Bayle-Cordier & Loïc Berger & Rayan Elatmani & Massimo Tavoni, 2023. "Breath, Love, Walk? The Impact of Mindfulness Interventions on Climate Policy Support and Environmental Attitudes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-29, July.
    2. Welsch, Heinz, 2021. "How climate-friendly behavior relates to moral identity and identity-protective cognition: Evidence from the European social surveys," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    3. Charles Caldwell & Natalie Probstein & Tanhum Yoreh, 2022. "Shades of green: environmental action in places of worship," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 12(3), pages 430-452, September.
    4. Ertör-Akyazi, Pinar & Akçay, Çağlar, 2021. "Moral intuitions predict pro-social behaviour in a climate commons game," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    5. Viola Di Cori & Cristiano Franceschinis & Nicolas Robert & Davide Matteo Pettenella & Mara Thiene, 2021. "Moral Foundations and Willingness to Pay for Non-Wood Forest Products: A Study in Three European Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-16, December.
    6. Benjamin S. Lowe & Susan K. Jacobson & Glenn D. Israel & Anna L. Peterson, 2023. "Association of Religious End Time Beliefs with Attitudes toward Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-16, June.
    7. Yuling Fu & Jiaxin Shi & Dan Su & Fumin Deng, 2024. "Face it and shoulder it jointly: from personal experience to mitigation behavior of climate change," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(7), pages 17319-17333, July.
    8. Jialing Huang & Janet Z. Yang & Haoran Chu, 2022. "Framing Climate Change Impacts as Moral Violations: The Pathway of Perceived Message Credibility," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-19, April.
    9. Schmidtke, Kelly Ann & Kudrna, Laura & Noufaily, Angela & Stallard, Nigel & Skrybant, Magdalena & Russell, Samantha & Clarke, Aileen, 2022. "Evaluating the relationship between moral values and vaccine hesitancy in Great Britain during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    10. Wamsler, Christine & Brink, Ebba, 2018. "Mindsets for Sustainability: Exploring the Link Between Mindfulness and Sustainable Climate Adaptation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 55-61.
    11. Shorna Allred & Gretchen Gary, 2019. "Riparian landowner decision-making in the context of flooding: an application of the theory of planned behavior," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 396-408, December.
    12. Tuyen Tiet & Nguyen To-The & Tuan Nguyen-Anh, 2022. "Farmers’ behaviors and attitudes toward climate change adaptation: evidence from Vietnamese smallholder farmers," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(12), pages 14235-14260, December.
    13. Engel, Yuval & Ramesh, Anusha & Steiner, Nick, 2020. "Powered by compassion: The effect of loving-kindness meditation on entrepreneurs' sustainable decision-making," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(6).
    14. Brent Mills & Alex Wilner, 2023. "The science behind “values”: Applying moral foundations theory to strategic foresight," Futures & Foresight Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 5(1), March.
    15. Barbara Culiberg & Hichang Cho & Mateja Kos Koklic & Vesna Zabkar, 2023. "The Role of Moral Foundations, Anticipated Guilt and Personal Responsibility in Predicting Anti-consumption for Environmental Reasons," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(2), pages 465-481, January.
    16. Trisha Harjani & Hongwei He & Melody Manchi Chao, 2024. "The Moral Foundations of Vaccine Passports," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(1), pages 93-121, February.
    17. Yao Song & Yan Luximon, 2019. "Design for Sustainability: The Effect of Lettering Case on Environmental Concern from a Green Advertising Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-15, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:20:p:13242-:d:942174. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.