Eurobarometer 46.1 (Oct-Nov 1996)

Attitude to biotechnology, information technology and data protection.
Attitude to the EURO. Topics of the next national elections. Topics:
nationality (multiple responses possible); personal opinion leadership
and frequency of political discussions; general attitude to membership
of one´s country in the EU; advantageousness of this membership.

1. Biotechnology: expected improvements or worsening through the
effects of new technologies such as solar energy, information
technology, biotechnology, telecommunication, new materials and space
research; associations with biotechnology; knowledge test in modern
biotechnology and gene technology (scale); assessment of certain
characteristics and abilities of humans as primarily inheritable or due
to education and circumstances (scale); assessment of benefits and
risks for society as well as the moral defensibility and degree to
which deserving of support of biotechnology in production of foods,
gene transfer to other types of plants, transfer of human genes to
bacteria to produce medications, to breed gene-technologically altered
animals in laboratory experiments, to transfer human genes to animals,
for organ transplantation and to conduct genetic tests on people to be
able to identify illnesses; attitude to biotechnology (scale);
preferred institutions and organizations to supervise biotechnological
research; expected effects from modern biotechnology in the next 20
years; trustworthy sources of information on biotechnology; general
assessment of importance of modern biotechnology (scale); sources of
information used on biotechnology; frequency of conversations about
biotechnology.

2. Election campaign: most important political topics for the next
national election campaign; use of newspapers and magazines.

3. Currency: attitude to a European currency and most important
reasons for or against a European currency; self-assessment of degree
of information about the new European currency; knowledge about
conditions for joining the currency union (test); preferred
introduction date for the EURO; assessment whether the country of
respondent will fulfill the conditions for the currency union in first
or second introduction round; expectation of positive or negative
consequences for the country of respondent in case of non-introduction
of the European currency; knowledge about the EURO (test); expected
effects of a common currency (scale); preference for extended
introduction time interval for the new money; preferred time intervals
for dual pricing in stores, on bills, bank account statements and
salary statements before introduction of the conversion as well as
after the introduction date; most important concerns in currency
conversion; preferred institutions and topics for conducting an
information campaign in connection with currency conversion; judgement
on selected advertising slogans on currency conversion regarding their
information content, their understandability, their persuasiveness and
their relation to reality; preferred distribution channels for
information on the European currency.

4. Information technology and data protection: interest in use of the
Internet, computer or teletext use via the television set, in order to
obtain access to various services such as contact with authorities from
at home, newspaper use, product information, participation in
conversation rounds and forums, sending e-mail, bank account
management, booking travel and use of virtual realities; concern about
leaving electronic traces behind in networks; extent of concern about
passing on personal data to private businesses; use of new
communication technologies depending on the data protection question;
dependence of one´s own readiness for electronic payment on data
protection; knowledge about the European data protection law;
importance of data protection on European level as well as on world
level; self-assessment on a left-right continuum.

Demography: person responsible for shopping and housekeeping;
self-classification as religious or atheist; frequency of church attendance.

Also encoded were: date of interview; start of interview; length of interview;
number of persons present during interview; willingness of respondent
to cooperate; city size.