Topic-specific Information Behaviour on the COVID-19 Pandemic (November 2021)

The survey "Topic-specific Information Behaviour on the Corona Pandemic" by the market and opinion research institute INFO GmbH examines the attitudes of the population towards the Corona Pandemic, their information behaviour and their handling of the topic as well as the assessment of the reporting on the Corona Pandemic. Thus, the current survey wave in November 2021 builds on surveys on the same topic in November 2020 and April 2021. The survey was conducted on behalf of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government.<br>Political interest; politically informed; general attitude towards politics in Germany (satisfaction with politics, influence on politics, attitude towards parties and politicians, understanding of politics); perception of various information offers of the federal government; currently most interesting political or social topic (open); currently most annoying topic (open); most frequently mentioned topics: Corona pandemic, environmental protection/climate change, foreigners/immigration/asylum/refugees, federal government/formation of government/coalition negotiations; split A: complex of questions on the annoying topic, split B: complex of questions on the interesting topic: what is most interesting/annoying in the context of this topic; being informed about this topic; personal behaviour in dealing with this topic (searched for information on the topic oneself, watched video contributions on the Internet or television on the topic, read articles on the topic in newspapers or on the Internet in full, only skimmed articles on the topic, talked to friends or acquaintances about the topic, tried to change the topic when talking about the topic, avoided the topic as much as possible, argued with others about the topic); evaluation of the reporting on this topic (too detailed, too complicated, too extensive, untrustworthy, balanced, correct, only aims to influence people, contains many opinions with which I disagree, I feel it is one-sided, does not reflect my own opinion on the topic at all, distracts from other important topics); behaviour in social media on this topic (expressed own opinion, only read opinions of others on this topic, have not yet read opinions on this in social media); general assessment of public discussion in social media on this topic (contains many opinions I disagree with, I perceive as one-sided, does not reflect my own opinion on the topic at all, I perceive as factual, I perceive as helpful to hear new arguments); comparison of one´s own view on the topic with the views of the environment in social networks and of family and friends; perception of information from the federal government on the topic; assessment of the credibility of information from the federal government on the topic.

Demography: age (year of birth, average age and grouped); gender; education; type of vocational training/professional qualification; occupation, household size; number of persons in household under 16; federal state; Berlin West/East; place of residence West/East; size of locality; party sympathies; former non-German nationality of respondent and parents (migration background); household net income (grouped).

Additionally coded were: Respondent ID; survey method (CATI, online panel); coarse clustering political disaffection (not political disaffected, political disaffected); average household size; and average number of children/youth in household under 16; weight; Nielsen areas; split (subgroups); allocation (question complex on annoying topic, question complex on topic of interest).