Data from: Religion does matter for climate change attitudes and behavior

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 environmental attitudes and religion, most are focused on Christian denominations and secularism, and few have examined other religions such as Buddhism. Using an online survey of 1,927 Australians we examined links between membership of four religious groupings (Buddhists, Christian literalists and non-literalists, and Secularists) and climate change attitudes and behaviors. Differences were found across religious groups in terms of their belief in: (a) human induced climate change, (b) the level of consensus among scientists, (c) their own efficacy, and (d) the need for policy responses. We show, using ordinal regression, that religion explains these differences even after taking into account socio-demographic factors, knowledge and environmental attitude, including belief in man's dominion over nature. Differences in attitude and behavior between these religious groups suggest the importance of engaging denominations to encourage change in attitudes and behavior among their members.

目前鲜有研究探讨宗教与气候变化态度及行为之间的关联。此外，尽管已有部分研究探讨了环境态度与宗教的关联，但绝大多数研究均聚焦于基督教教派与世俗主义，针对佛教等其他宗教的相关研究则极为匮乏。本研究针对1927名澳大利亚民众开展线上调查，分析了四类宗教群体（佛教徒、字面阐释派基督徒与非字面阐释派基督徒、世俗主义者）的成员身份与气候变化态度及行为之间的关联。研究发现，不同宗教群体在以下信念维度上存在显著差异：(a) 人为活动引发气候变化的观点；(b) 科学界对气候变化的共识程度；(c) 自身行动效能感；(d) 政策应对气候变化的必要性。本研究通过有序回归分析证实，即便在控制社会人口统计学因素、认知水平与环境态度（包括人类主宰自然的信念）等变量后，宗教因素仍可解释上述群体差异。不同宗教群体在态度与行为上的差异，也提示了动员各宗教教派以引导其成员转变态度与行为的重要性。