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Journal of Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze how religion and politics impact peoples’ opinions about climate change and likeliness to engage in pro-environmental behavior. The study conducted was a non-experimental, correlational research design, using a survey methodology. Fifty-eight participants, all over the age of 18, were recruited to participate in this study. The participants were asked to complete five questionnaires: The Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS) (Huber & Huber, 2012), The Climate Change Attitude Survey (CCAS) (Christensen & Knezek, 2015), The Political Participation Scale (PPS), The Environmental Behavior Scale (EBS), and a demographic questionnaire. Two research hypotheses guided this study. The first predicted that there is a significant negative relationship between conservative religious ideologies and environmental concern. The second predicted that there is a significant negative relationship between conservative political ideologies and environmental concern. Neither hypothesis yielded statistically significant results. However, interesting findings included a statistically significant, weak positive correlation between scores of political liberalism and environmental concern. In other words, as political liberalism went up, environmental concern went up. There was not a statistically significant difference between high scores of religious liberalism and environmental concern. The topic of how ideologies like religion and politics impact pro-environmental behavior and climate change views is important because it can help shed light on what drives climate change skepticism and willingness to engage in pro-environmental behavior.

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