The role of religious narratives and religious orientation towards concerns for the natural environment and animal welfare

Dexon Pasaribu; Bagus Takwin; Pim Martens

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0271515

The role of religious narratives and religious orientation towards concerns for the natural environment and animal welfare

PLoS One. 2022 Aug 11;17(8):e0271515. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271515. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Dexon Pasaribu¹, Bagus Takwin², Pim Martens³

Affiliations

¹ Maastricht Sustainable Institute, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
² Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia.
³ University College Venlo, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Several studies show that religion hinders concerns for the natural environment preservation. Others, however, have found that the belief in God or the identification with a particular religion is not associated with measures for environmental concerns. This study investigates the influence of religious narrative framing and the relation between Allport's intrinsic personal (IP) and extrinsic social (ES) religious orientation towards general environmental apathy (GEA) and acceptability for harming animals (AIS). This study surveyed 657 teachers and school staff in East Java, Indonesia. Using ANOVA, we find that religious narrative affects participant's GEA and AIS. Participants in stewardship narrative group have significantly lower GEA and AIS compared to participants in human dominance and the non-narratives control group. Using multiple regression, we also confirm the persistence of religious narrative's influence towards GEA. In addition, lower GEA and AIS correlate with higher IP and lower ES. Lastly, we identify and discuss significant demographic and other determinants relation to GEA and AIS.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animal Welfare
Animals
Environment
Humans
Narration*
Religion*
Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

The work has been made possible by Government of Indonesia Ministry of Finance’s Endowment Fund for Education Institution’s (LPDP) (Grant no 201702221010339) scholarship and funding (https://www.lpdp.kemenkeu.go.id). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.