German Internet Panel, Wave 60 (July 2022)

The German Internet Panel (GIP) is a long-term study at the University of Mannheim. The GIP examines individual attitudes and preferences that are relevant in political and economic decision-making processes. To this end, more than 3,500 people throughout Germany have been regularly surveyed online every two months since 2012 on a wide range of topics. The GIP is based on a random sample of the general population in Germany between the ages of 16 and 75. The study started in 2012 and was supplemented by new participants in 2014 and 2018. The panel participants were recruited offline. The GIP questionnaires cover a variety of topics that deal with current events.<br>The questionnaire contains numerous experimental variations in the survey instruments. Further information can be found in the study documentation.

Number of different statements agreed with (drink driving is not a small thing, violence against political opponents is sometimes justified, harsher penalties for crime should be introduced in Germany, it is understandable that some people evade taxes, the high salaries for managers are justified, public broadcasting fees benefit democracy, we would all be better off if we ate less meat, it is okay to use violence for some political goals); acceptance of political violence (intimidating a political opponent on the internet; removing a political opponent´s leaflets, event notices or election advertising, preventing other people from attending a political opponent´s event, shouting down a political opponent to prevent them from speaking, using violence to prevent a political opponent from speaking); agreement with statements about political violence (violence against political opponents is sometimes justified, it is okay to use violence for some political goals, do not agree with any of these statements).

Migration: Opinion on the immigration of a fictitious person with certain characteristics (male, unmarried, Christian, university degree) for certain reasons (political persecution in the home country, no work in the country of origin, uninhabitability of the home country due to climate change, health risk in the home country due to high corona infection rates, no reasons other than personal criteria).

Development aid: Opinion on Germany´s continued financial support for development projects with various objectives (broad-based and job-creating growth, strengthening broad-based and job-creating growth to reduce migration to Europe, promoting the democratic rule of law and guaranteeing human rights, promoting the democratic rule of law and guaranteeing human rights to reduce migration to Europe, support for climate risk insurance to compensate for losses and damages suffered, support for climate risk insurance to compensate for losses and damages suffered to reduce migration to Europe, improvement of the health system, improvement of the health system to reduce migration to Europe, support for development projects in general).

Threat of infection rate of certain diseases (COVID-19, HIV).

Values: Opinion with regard to selected statements (it´s okay to break the law if you don´t get caught; always be helpful, even if the cost is high).

Economy (experiments regarding characteristics of companies): Preference for purchasing a product from companies with certain characteristics (profit manipulation; dismissal of a large number of employees); preference for accepting a job offer from companies with certain characteristics (investing a portion of profits in local communities to support local families; investing a portion of profits in software to prevent online payment fraud); preference for purchasing a product from companies with certain characteristics (investing a portion of profits in local communities to support local families; investing a portion of profits in software to prevent online payment fraud); preference for the purchase of shares in companies with certain characteristics (investing a portion of profits in local communities to support local families; investing a portion of profits in software to prevent online payment fraud); preference for the purchase of shares in companies with certain characteristics (production of rear-view mirrors for the automotive industry and company headquarters located in East Germany; production of exterior mirrors for the automotive industry and company headquarters located in West Germany); personal importance of various corporate goals (product safety, profit maximisation, fair wages, increasing the proportion of women in management positions, reduction of CO2 emissions, job security in Germany, respectful treatment of employees, job security in all subsidiaries worldwide, investment in research and development, social commitment in the region).

Current emotional state (senselessness; sadness); job burnout (feeling emotionally drained; feeling tired and exhausted after work).

Social media: Personal accounts for selected social media (facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Xing, Instagram, Spotify, twitter, YouTube); frequency of using facebook; purpose of facebook use (private, professional); frequency of using TikTok; number of own videos shared via TikTok in the last two months; frequency of using LinkedIn or Xing; acceptability of sharing personal digital data for a research project at a German university and reason for the respective response (GPS data, Webtracking data, facebook data, LinkedIn or Xing data); willingness to share own data with regard to the aforementioned situations and reason for the respective response.

Experiment on the attention of the respondent (Attention check): Assignment of a predefined answer option for the sentence ´I am an attentive person´, participation in a survey currently taking place, indication of the frequency of a certain digit occurring in a table of numbers, arithmetic task, question about the request to assign certain answer options or to solve certain tasks on the previous pages of the survey and indication of whether the requests were complied with.

Data protection and internet services: Users of Meta, google, Amazon etc. have lost all control over collection and use of their personal data; confidential and proper use of personal data by internet services; existing laws and organisational practices of internet services provide adequate protection of users´ privacy.

Science and research (open science): More trust in science through public sharing of study materials, data and analysis codes.

Demography: sex; age (year of birth, categorized); highest level of education; highest level of professional education; marital status; household size; employment status; German citizenship; frequency of private Internet use; federal state.

Additionally coded were: respondent ID, GIP; household ID, GIP; person ID (within household); year of recruitment (2012, 2014, 2018); interview date; current online status; assignment to experimental groups.

Questionnaire evaluation (interesting, varied, relevant, long, difficult, too personal); overall assessment of the survey; respondent made further
comments on the questionnaire.