New Research on Dark Green Humility by Taylor, Wright and LeVasseur

We are excited to highlight some new research around the concept of dark green religion that will be of interest to many ISSRNC members. The article, “Dark green humility: religious, psychological, and affective attributes of proenvironmental behaviors,” was co-authored by Bron Taylor, Jen Wright, and Todd LeVasseur and published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences.

Below is a summary of their research:

Through a novel survey instrument, we examined traits and characteristics that various scholars and observers have averred promote or hinder proenvironmental behaviors. Put most generally, based on extensive reviews of extant research including our own qualitative and quantitative studies, we hypothesized that those who hold anthropocentric and monotheistic religious views, and who express low levels of certain types of humility (per scales termed religious, cosmic, and environmental humility), would be less likely to report that they engage in proenvironmental behaviors.

We further hypothesized that those who hold biocentric or ecocentric values, Organicist/Gaian/ ecological understandings of interdependence, and/or pantheistic or animistic perceptions (per a new “dark green spirituality scale”), and express high levels of the previously mentioned types of humility, would be more likely to report that they engage in proenvironmental behaviors. We used three measures—those related to choices about food, transportation, and energy consumption—as proxies for proenvironmental behaviors. These measures also illuminate the quest for sustainable human economic and social systems. Herein therefore, when speaking of proenvironmental behaviors, we have in mind as well behaviors that seek to make human social systems environmentally and socially sustainable.

The article was published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences.