Green Conflict: How Perceptions of Economic Security Influence U.S. Religious Adherents’ Attitudes Toward Environmental Spending

• In Event: 2329 - Section on the Sociology of Religion Referred Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 4. Religion and the Environment

Abstract

In the U.S., research consistently shows that political conservatism is negatively correlated with environmental concern, and positively correlated with religiosity. However, findings at the intersection of environmental concern and religiosity are mixed. A theory of religious change in the U.S. is called for, which can also account for cultural and political shifts related to environmental concern. Existential security theory posits that religion declines probabilistically as human development increases within a society. Thus, the persistence of religion in the U.S. is explicable, in part, in terms of higher levels of economic inequality relative to other nations with high levels of human development. Thus, those who perceive themselves to be more secure—healthier, wealthier, and more highly educated—should be both more environmentally concerned and less religious, and changes over time by birth cohort should reflect changing levels of human security. This paper tests these conjectures as they relate to environmental concern, religiosity, and perceived economic security using pooled data from the 1973-2014 General Social Survey. Deploying binary logistic regression, a measure of environmental spending was regressed on thirteen religious identity groups, a seven-category continuous birth cohort variable, and controls. Descriptive results indicated little overall difference in support for environmental spending and little difference in religiosity by perceived income. However, statistically significant nonlinear positive changes in environmental concern by birth cohort were found across all groups. Conditional effects of religious group identity were only significant for those of average income, and religious adherents of above average income were consistently lower in their levels of support for environmental spending relative to the unaffiliated. These findings complicate the predictions of existential security as they relate to the religion-environment connection, suggesting that religiosity plays a different role in cultivating—or stymieing—environmental concern as related to economic security.

Author

• Lukas Szrot, Bemidji State University