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Eckberg and Blocker decided to test out the theory that Lynn White had in his article that said that it was religiosity that perpetrated the man-dominance-over-nature that has been seen in Western culture (see Research Example #2). So Eckberg and Blocker had the research topic of religiosity and environmentalism.
To examine whether the sacredness of the Bible affected environmental attitudes of individuals in a population, Eckberg and Blocker decided to ask individuals about their own religious affiliation. They also asked the individuals about their own views about the environment. This data collection was done via a telephone questionnaire in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Eckberg and Blocker did not do a variety of religions, rather they focused on Judeo-Christian and Conservative Protestant, comparing the two. They asked these groups how much they believe religion is important and how strongly they believe in the bible. The environmental questions were more about what environmental problem they thought was important.
To get accurate results Eckberg and Blocker ran correlation tests, controlling for different variables such as social backgrounds. They also did regression analyses on the results. These types of statistical analyses show the amount of connection between two variables. While this does not indicate cause, it does show that there is a link between the two variables if there is a strong enough correlation for the sample size.
The conclusion of the article was that Lynn White may have been onto something. The data from this research that belief in the Bible showed a slight correlation with harmful views of the environment and biblical views.
This article may have been a little hasty though, because the correlations really were not all that strong and though it did show a correlation there could always be another reason for the data being related and not necessarily based on denominations.