Historical Ecospirituality and Environmental Attitudes

Paul C. Behler () and Paulina Schröder ()
Additional contact information
Paul C. Behler: University of Bonn
Paulina Schröder: Rockwool Foundation Berlin & Humboldt University of Berlin

No 377, ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series from University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany

Abstract: This paper studies ecospirituality - spiritual views that people have about the natural world. First, utilizing folklore data from around 1,000 pre-industrial societies, we present the first comprehensive global measurement of ecospirituality. Our analysis reveals systematic cultural variation: ecospirituality is most prevalent in South America and least prevalent in Europe. Additionally, we find a strong negative correlation between ecospirituality and belief in high gods. Second, we study the potential impact of historical ecospirituality on current environmental attitudes. Combining data from the Integrated Values Survey with folklore, we find no statistically significant relationship between contemporary environmental attitudes and the prevalence of ecospirituality in the folklore of ones ancestors.

Keywords: Environmental Attitudes; Ecospirituality; Folklore (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q50 Z12 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28
Date: 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-his and nep-res
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econtribute.de/RePEc/ajk/ajkdps/ECONtribute_377_2025.pdf First version, 2025 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:377

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series from University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany Niebuhrstrasse 5, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ECONtribute Office ().