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Abstract

Many people in many cultures have a spiritual connection with nature, yet little empirical research speaks to the antecedents and outcomes of “ecospirituality”. Chapter 1 introduces ecospirituality and situates it within literature on culture, religion, and environment. Chapter 2 investigates how three key sociocultural factors—religion, urbanization, and affluence—are associated with individual differences in ecospirituality in a large cross-cultural sample of religious individuals and a sample of religious and non-religious individuals from the United States. Chapter 3 uses a large cross-cultural sample to assess the association between ecospirituality and pro-environmental outcomes and examines the mediating pathways that might explain this association. Chapter 4 uses an elaborate outdoor behavioural experiment to investigate the link between ecospirituality and moral concern for nature. Chapter 5 discusses the broader implications of this work, remaining questions, and possibilities for future directions that expand the scope of this research.