Political conservatism, religion, and environmental consumption in the United States

Abstract

The role of political conservatism and religion in shaping attitudes toward environmental consumption in the US is examined. Previous research suggests that while there is a mixed relationship between religiosity (measured in various ways) and environmentalism, political conservatives are unlikely to support pro-environment measures. Using nationally representative survey data, mixed results are found regarding the relationship of religiosity and environmental consumption: religious attendance and religious identity are positively related to environmental consumption, while belief in an involved God and biblical literalism are negatively related. Increased levels of religiosity, however, mute the otherwise strong negative effect of political conservatism. This suggests, surprisingly, that Green marketers and activists are likely to face less conservative resistance to environmental consumption among religious Americans.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental behavior
• environmental consumption
• religion
• religious beliefs
• political behavior
• political conservatism

Acknowledgments

Funding for data collection was provided by the Shell Center for Sustainability at Rice University, with additional support from the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Elaine Howard Ecklund PI.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. To alleviate concerns that our model is over-specified with black Protestant and race variables, we include Model 6 in Appendix 1. This model does not include race indicator variables, and the results for our main effects are similar to the results presented in Table 3.