Sacred Beliefs & Environmental Risk Perception
The Influence of Sacred Beliefs in Environmental Risk Perception and Attitudes
One may question: how is it possible that people can pollute something so sacred and revered like the Ganga River? Given Hinduism’s focus on respecting the environment, shouldn’t it be the case that conserving and maintaining the cleanliness of the river be a sacred value instead?
A proposition put forward by Sachdeva (2017) is that sacred beliefs can lead devotees to have a diminished perception of environmental risks like pollution. For example, in cases where natural resources are seen as manifestations of the divine, people may come to believe that the resource is immune to material degradation. In the case of Ganga, it is commonly believed by devotees that Ma Ganga (the goddess whose body is the river Ganga) is so powerful that she can cleanse herself of impurities. Some go so far as to hold that arguing for the possibility that the river Ganga cannot purify itself is sacrilegious.
This behaviour is described by Kouabenan (1998) who explains that sacred perceptions can mitigate perceived risk (for example, it has been shown that wearing a talisman leads to a reduced perceived risk of the factors that may cause a vehicular accident). Thus, the case of pollution in the Ganga river could likely be one where risk is perceived to be mitigated by the sacred powers of the river.
Sachdeva (2017) conducted an experiment that affirmed the above argument put forward by Kouabenan. Click on the next page to read more!