The Ideological Contributors To Climate Change Risk Perception: A Cross-National Study Of Politics, Religion And Postmaterialism

The purpose of this research is to provide detailed exploration of sociological and sociopsychological
contributors to two forms of climate change risk perception, country risk and
world risk. The primary focus of the research includes ideological factors including religion,
politics and postmaterialism. Religion in particular has been underexamined across the
literature, with little understanding of how the various elements of religiosity influence climate
change attitudes. The research therefore develops theoretical expectations for the effects of
religion and tests these theoretical expectations in both a 3-country analysis and a multilevel
analysis of 28 countries. The research also aims to provide greater depth to understandings of
how politics functions as a driver of risk perception globally.
The 3-country multivariate linear regression analysis focuses on Finland, Japan and the USA,
which vary substantially in their political and religious characteristics, with important
commonalities including being high-income democracies, shown in country profiles. The 2nd
analysis chapter utilises multilevel models with exploration of individual-level and aggregatelevel
measures for religion. While individual-level religious affiliation was not important for
explaining variation in climate change risk across most countries, with the US being a notable
outlier observed in the 3-country analysis, religious attendance, majority religion and
proportion of Christians in a country indicate effects on risk perception across countries,
emphasising the multifaceted nature of religiosity, particularly from a global perspective.
The final analysis contributes to literature pertaining to politics and postmaterialism with an
exploration of identified mechanisms in a cross-national context using multilevel models.
Random Slopes models indicate that left-wing ideology indicates strong homogeneity across
countries, with consistent risk perception amongst individuals in this ideological category.
Meanwhile, the climate risk perception of centre-right and right-wing individuals varies
substantially across countries. The research identifies religious attendance, postmaterialism,
majority religion and national wealth as factors contributing to this variation.