Subtopic Deep Dive
Religious Influences on Climate Change Attitudes
Research Guide
What is Religious Influences on Climate Change Attitudes?
Religious Influences on Climate Change Attitudes examines how religiosity, religious denominations, and doctrinal beliefs shape individuals' perceptions of climate change, denialism levels, and support for environmental policies.
Researchers use quantitative surveys, cross-national comparisons, and mixed-methods studies to analyze these influences across Christian, Muslim, and other faith communities. Key papers include Jenkins et al. (2018) with 181 citations reviewing religious dimensions of climate change, and Morrison et al. (2015) with 175 citations showing religion impacts attitudes and behaviors beyond Christianity. Over 10 provided papers span 2013-2021, focusing on empirical links between faith and environmental stances.
Why It Matters
Tailoring climate communication to religious groups boosts policy support; Hope and Jones (2014, 161 citations) found UK Christians and Muslims hold distinct pro-environmental values influencing CCS technology acceptance. Koehrsen (2021, 137 citations) shows Islamic organizations shape Muslim mitigation activities globally. Ives and Kidwell (2019, 168 citations) link religious social values to sustainability, aiding strategies for faith-based environmental campaigns.
Key Research Challenges
Denominational Variation Modeling
Studies struggle to quantify attitude differences across denominations due to diverse doctrines. Morrison et al. (2015) highlight focus on Christianity overlooks others. Cross-national data scarcity complicates models (Koehrsen, 2021).
Causality vs Correlation
Distinguishing religion's direct effects from socioeconomic confounders remains difficult in surveys. Hope and Jones (2014) used mixed methods but causality persists as issue. Longitudinal data lacks for faith evolution (Jenkins et al., 2018).
Secular-Religious Comparisons
Baseline secular attitudes vary culturally, skewing religious impact assessments. Ives and Kidwell (2019) note secular discourse dominates sustainability values. Standardized metrics needed for fair contrasts (Hope and Jones, 2014).
Essential Papers
Religion and Climate Change
Willis Jenkins, Evan Berry, Luke Beck Kreider · 2018 · Annual Review of Environment and Resources · 181 citations
Understanding the cultural dimensions of climate change requires understanding its religious aspects. Insofar as climate change is entangled with humans, it is also entangled with all the ways in w...
Religion Does Matter for Climate Change Attitudes and Behavior
Mark Morrison, Roderick Duncan, Kevin A. Parton · 2015 · PLoS ONE · 175 citations
Little research has focused on the relationship between religion and climate change attitudes and behavior. Further, while there have been some studies examining the relationship between environmen...
Religion and social values for sustainability
Christopher D. Ives, Jeremy Kidwell · 2019 · Sustainability Science · 168 citations
Discourse on social values as they relate to environmental and sustainability issues has almost exclusively been conducted in a secular intellectual context. However, with a renewed emphasis on cul...
The impact of religious faith on attitudes to environmental issues and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies: A mixed methods study
Aimie Hope, Christopher R. Jones · 2014 · Technology in Society · 161 citations
An exploratory mixed methods study was conducted to investigate potential differences in the pro-environmental values and beliefs of people from the UK Christian, Muslim and secular (non-religious)...
Ecology: Its relative importance and absolute irrelevance for a Christian: A Kierkegaardian transversal space for the controversy on eco-theology
Hermen Kroesbergen · 2014 · HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies · 153 citations
The controversy about the importance of eco-theology or creation spirituality seems to be in a deadlock. Those who support it and those who oppose it do not even seem to be able to communicate with...
Muslims and climate change: How Islam, Muslim organizations, and religious leaders influence climate change perceptions and mitigation activities
Jens Koehrsen · 2021 · Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change · 137 citations
Abstract A growing body of research stresses the importance of religion in understanding and addressing climate change. However, so far, little is known about the relationship between Muslim commun...
What does ‘nature’ mean?
Frédéric Ducarme, Denis Couvet · 2020 · Palgrave Communications · 121 citations
Abstract The idea of ‘nature’ is at the very core of science, considered as its flagship and deepest link with human societies. However, while nature preservation has become a major social concern,...
Reading Guide
Foundational Papers
Start with Hope and Jones (2014, 161 citations) for mixed-methods on Christian-Muslim environmental values, then Kroesbergen (2014, 153 citations) for eco-theology debates.
Recent Advances
Study Jenkins et al. (2018, 181 citations) for cultural-religious overview, Koehrsen (2021, 137 citations) for Islamic influences, Ives and Kidwell (2019, 168 citations) for social values.
Core Methods
Survey regressions (Morrison et al., 2015), mixed qualitative-quantitative (Hope and Jones, 2014), doctrinal analysis (Kroesbergen, 2014).
How PapersFlow Helps You Research Religious Influences on Climate Change Attitudes
Discover & Search
Research Agent uses searchPapers and exaSearch to find papers like 'Muslims and climate change' by Koehrsen (2021), then citationGraph reveals connections to Jenkins et al. (2018) and findSimilarPapers uncovers denomination-specific studies.
Analyze & Verify
Analysis Agent applies readPaperContent to extract survey data from Morrison et al. (2015), runPythonAnalysis for statistical correlations on attitude scores, and verifyResponse with CoVe plus GRADE grading to confirm religious influence claims against Hope and Jones (2014).
Synthesize & Write
Synthesis Agent detects gaps in Muslim vs Christian studies, flags contradictions in doctrinal impacts; Writing Agent uses latexEditText, latexSyncCitations for Jenkins et al. (2018), and latexCompile to produce policy reports with exportMermaid diagrams of faith-attitude flows.
Use Cases
"Run regression on religiosity and climate denial from Morrison 2015 survey data"
Research Agent → searchPapers(Morrison 2015) → Analysis Agent → readPaperContent → runPythonAnalysis(pandas regression on extracted variables) → statistical p-values and coefficients output.
"Draft LaTeX review on religious influences with citations to Jenkins and Koehrsen"
Research Agent → citationGraph(Jenkins 2018) → Synthesis Agent → gap detection → Writing Agent → latexEditText(structured review) → latexSyncCitations(Koehrsen 2021) → latexCompile → formatted PDF.
"Find code for modeling religious attitudes in climate surveys"
Research Agent → paperExtractUrls(recent papers) → Code Discovery → paperFindGithubRepo → githubRepoInspect → R or Python scripts for survey analysis output.
Automated Workflows
Deep Research workflow conducts systematic review: searchPapers(50+ on religious climate attitudes) → citationGraph → DeepScan(7-step verify with CoVe on Jenkins et al., 2018) → structured report. Theorizer generates theories on doctrinal evolution from Morrison et al. (2015) and Koehrsen (2021) via literature synthesis.
Frequently Asked Questions
What defines Religious Influences on Climate Change Attitudes?
It covers how religiosity, denominations, and doctrines shape climate perceptions, denialism, and policy support via surveys and comparisons (Jenkins et al., 2018).
What methods dominate this subtopic?
Quantitative surveys, mixed-methods studies, and cross-national analyses; Hope and Jones (2014) used mixed methods for UK Christian-Muslim comparisons.
What are key papers?
Jenkins et al. (2018, 181 citations) reviews religious dimensions; Morrison et al. (2015, 175 citations) proves religion matters for attitudes; Koehrsen (2021, 137 citations) covers Muslims.
What open problems exist?
Causal inference, non-Christian faiths coverage, and longitudinal tracking of faith stances (Ives and Kidwell, 2019; Koehrsen, 2021).
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Part of the Religion, Ecology, and Ethics Research Guide