Catholic religious identity, prosocial and pro-environmental behaviors, and connectedness to nature in Chile

Alexander Neaman, Pablo Díaz-Siefer, Elliot Burnham, Mónica Castro, Sarah Zabel, Elvira A. Dovletyarova, Claudia Navarro-Villarroel, Siegmar Otto

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Catholic religious groups have historically been underrepresented in environ mental movements. On the other hand, researchers have sought for decades to understand the factors that determine pro-environmental behavior. In this paper, data were obtained from two studies capturing different sample populations in Chile. The objective of the first study was to explore the interconnection of the Catholic religious identity, prosocial and pro-environmental behaviors. The objective of the second study was to explore the interconnection of the Catholic religious identity, pro-environmental behavior and connectedness to nature. Participants were students at a Catholic university and members of the general public. The findings demonstrate that Catholic identity positively correlated with prosocial behavior, which in turn positively correlated with proenvironmental behavior. However, we found no direct link between Catholic identity and pro-environmental behavior. Likewise, self-reporting Catholic individuals scored significantly lower on the scale of connected- ness to nature, in comparison with nonreligious persons. Finally, the surveys revealed that connectedness to nature positively correlated with pro-environmental behavior.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)44-50
Number of pages7
JournalGAIA
Volume30
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Mar 2021

Keywords

  • Altruism
  • Christian
  • Ecological behavior
  • Environmentally significant behavior
  • Faith
  • Pro-environmental behavior
  • Spirituality

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Catholic religious identity, prosocial and pro-environmental behaviors, and connectedness to nature in Chile'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this