The Influence of Islamic Work Ethic for Environmental Stewardship on Teachers' Pro‐Environmental Behavioral Intentions: A Survey Experiment

ABSTRACT Despite extensive global efforts to promote sustainability, many societies continue to struggle with motivating individuals to act pro‐environmentally, especially in cultural contexts where religious and ethical values play a central role. Yet, prior research on religion and pro‐environmental outcomes is largely correlational, leaving open whether making religious ethical considerations salient can shift environmental intentions. This study reports a randomized question‐order survey experiment conducted with 348 public‐school teachers in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Participants were randomly assigned to conditions where Islamic Work Ethic for Environmental Stewardship (IWE‐ES) items appeared either before or after pro‐environmental behavioral intention (PEB‐I) items. Results show that when IWE‐ES items preceded the PEB‐I items, respondents reported higher PEB‐I, consistent with an order‐induced salience effect. This effect was stronger among respondents with higher baseline IWE‐ES levels, suggesting a boundary condition whereby dispositional endorsement amplifies responsiveness to salient religio‐ethical cues. These findings suggest that the contextual salience of IWE‐ES can shape how individuals frame and report their pro‐environmental intentions in a culturally meaningful setting. The study contributes by demonstrating a low‐intensity, field‐embedded survey‐experimental approach to examining religio‐ethical salience and environmental intentions in a non‐Western context.