The Influence of Religiously and Scientifically Framed Messages on Agreement with Water Use Restrictions

Abstract

Recent droughts in 2012 and 2013 have increased attention to water use issues in the United States. Cities, government agencies, and environmental nonprofit organizations use scientifically-framed messages to advocate for water conservation. In addition, some religious organizations use messages based on religious teachings to promote water conservation. Because approximately 70% of the U.S. public reports some religious affiliation, it is important to investigate the influence of religious and scientific messages for promoting water conservation. I report the results of an experiment that examines how scientifically-and religiously-framed messages influence attitudes about water use restrictions. I found that Christians were no more or less likely to agree with a policy calling for water use restrictions than non-Christians and non-religious people. However, a Christian religious message negatively influenced agreement with water use restrictions in the entire sample-and in a Christian subsample. Results suggest that religiously framed messages may not increase environmental concern.

Comparing Religious Environmental Ethics to Support Efforts to Achieve Local and Global Sustainability: Empirical Insights Based on a Theoretical Framework

“…I made this choice because global sustainability is an urgent problem that must be solved now, before any country can significantly change its economic structure: The cross-country statistical analysis performed in Appendix D determined the environmental Kuznets curve for the sample of 145 countries. In contrast, the relationship between religious institutions and environmental sustainability might be crucial, since the institutions that have developed in many religions turn out to be complementary to secular institutions so that both support the achievement of sustainable use of some resource (e.g., [46][47][48][49]). For example, Adriance et al [50] describe the practical measures that religious leaders and their followers could take to foster sustainability in Canada and the United States.…”