Ecospirituality Predicts Pro-Environmental Outcomes Across Cultures

The idea that nature has spiritual qualities is common across cultures. In North American samples, evidence supports a link between ecospirituality and pro-environmental outcomes. The generalizability of this claim, however, remains untested. A cross-cultural sample of religious individuals from 15 countries spanning 5 world religions (N=11,186) is used to (1) estimate the association between ecospirituality and three pro-environmental outcomes: pro-environmental behavioural intentions, policy support, and financial donations; and (2) assess the pathways by which ecospirituality translates to pro-environmentalism. The results of pre-registered analyses showed ecospirituality positively predicted each of the pro-environmental outcomes similarly across diverse cultural and religious populations. Moreover, the associations between ecospirituality and pro-environmental outcomes were mediated by the same variables across cultures: (1) moral responsibility for nature, (2) gratitude to nature, and (3) self-efficacy over environmental issues. Ecospirituality unites diverse cultural worldviews in motivating care for nature, making it a potentially powerful foundation for global environmental stewardship.