Religiosity and Environmentalism: An Empirical Reflection on Theoretical Conflicts

After forty years of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, it was necessary to examine the effects of the post-revolutionary system on various aspects of Iranian life. One of the aspects which is becoming more and more important is the environmental status of Iran from one hand and the thoughts and behaviors of the residents of this system on the other hand. Since the dominant ideology of the Iranian revolution and the post-revolutionary system of government has undoubtedly been of a religious nature, policy making has been based on Islamic law and the time needed to institutionalize the values ​​endorsed by the government and religious and political socialization with at least one generation has passed, now is a good time to examine the proportion of sharia and what is assumed to be the result of sharia, including environmentalism in the sample populations. In the present study, with a review of the theoretical literature on how religion and environmentalism relate, three possible relationships between two variables of religiosity and environmental behavior (positive correlation, negative correlation, and non-correlation) were formulated in the form of three different hypotheses. To empirically test these competing hypotheses, a survey study was conducted with a sample of 400 students of Tehran University. The results of the research showed that only the hypothesis of a negative or inverse relationship between religiosity and environmental behavior received empirical support but the magnitude or intensity of this relationship was weak.