Attitude to the Census (November - December 1987)

Attitude of the German population to the census after census day, 31
May 1987. Political attitudes. Attitudes to deviant behavior and use of
drugs.

Topics: 1. Political interest; satisfaction with democracy in the
Federal Republic; satisfaction with current Federal Government;
attitude to the census; receipt of a written request to fill out the
questionnaire; assumed amount of non-participation in the census;
attitude to the census in circle of friends and acquaintances;
conversations about the census in the social surroundings and time of
last conversation; noticed media reporting about the census; questions
from the census that were reluctantly answered; attitude to punishment
of census boycotters; knowledge of cases of refusal; assumed population
participation in the census given voluntary participation; willingness
to answer selected personal questions given voluntary participation;
preference for census or providing data already available by government
offices; assumed benefit or harm from discussion about the census in
the media; attitude to calls for boycott; judgement on the success of
the boycott movement; benefit of the census; self-assessment on a
left-right continuum; most important elements of a democracy and
characterization of democracy in the Federal Republic; party
preference; violation of fundamental rights perceived personally or by
persons of social surroundings; attitude to technology; personal
concerns and attitude regarding misuse of personal census data; trust
in observance of data protection; attitude to storing personal data;
attitude to opinion polls (scale); willingness to participate in a
microcensus survey; willingness to provide data from private sphere to
friends, neighbors, census bureaus and scientific surveys; attitude to
government statistics.

2. Attitude to selected illegal actions (scale); appropriate extent of
punishment for such offences; law-abidingness; judgement on physical
and psychological dangers of use of drugs (scale); attitude to
legalization of hashish; personal familiarity with users of drugs;
closer information on a drug addict in one´s circle of friends;
excessive use of alcohol; traveling without a ticket; not paying
entrance fees; trying hashish; areas in immediate vicinity of residence
avoided at night.

Demography: month of birth of respondent; sex; marital status; number
of children; ages of children (classified); religious denomination;
frequency of church attendance; school education; vocational training;
occupation; occupational position; employment; monthly gross income of
respondent and household altogether; number of persons contributing to
household income; size of household; position of respondent in
household; characteristics of head of household; number of persons
eligible to vote in household; persons in household who do not have
German citizenship; self-assessment of social class; union membership
of respondent and other members of household; possession of a
telephone.

Interviewer rating: presence of third persons during interview and
person desiring this presence; intervention of others in interview and
person introducing this intervention; attitude to census of persons
additionally present during interview; presence of further persons in
other rooms; willingness to cooperate and reliability of respondent.

Also encoded was: length of interview; date of interview;
identification of interviewer; sex of interviewer; age of interviewer.