What is it about?
In secularized Europe, common religiosity (not only fundamentalism) seems to undermine pro-environmental attitudes and, even more, behavior. In 33 European countries, atheists are more pro-environmentalist than religionists, but (non-religious) spirituality predicts the highest care for the environment, and this across cultural zones of Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim heritage.
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Why is it important?
Going beyond the traditional perspective that "good" religion valuing "stewardship" predicts high pro-environmentalism whereas "bad" religion valuing "dominion" predicts the opposite, this study showed that, at least in secular cultural contexts, non-religious worldviews, i.e., atheism and, even more, spirituality, translate into environmental commitment. Psychological explanations of the role of spirituality were confirmed such as admiration of the world (awe), global collective identity, generativity/care, and intellectual openness. These findings hold beyond individual differences in political orientation.
Perspectives
These findings apply to rather secularized Western contexts (mostly of Christian heritage), whereas the role of religiosity (see our additional analyses in the Suppl. Material and several previous studies) seems to be more positive in Asia and Africa. We also noticed that the US is an "outlier", due to highest negative association between religiosity and pro-environmentalism (possibly because of political polarization). Our work underlines the importance of being culturally sensitive when studying global effects of (ir)religion on pro-environmentalism.
Professor Vassilis Saroglou
Universite catholique de Louvain
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Behavior: The Role of Religion and Spirituality in Secularized Europe Beyond Relevant Individual Differences, Journal of Environmental Psychology, October 2025, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2025.102799.
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