Viral Communication: Trajectories of Experience through the Pandemic - A Qualitative Longitudinal Dataset

Here, we present a dataset collected within a longitudinal interview study that has been conducted as part of a larger project (i.e., Viral Communication), exploring (changing) public attitudes and behaviours through the course of the pandemic in Germany. From a nationally representative survey, forty participants were purposively sampled on the basis of gender, age and socioeconomic status for the interviews. Each participant was interviewed three times within a 10 month time frame (between December 2020 and September 2021), with the exception of two dropouts from the study. The semi-structured interviews were developed to further elaborate on some of the responses in the survey instrument and to provide additional insights into topics and controversies surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany, such as information/misinformation, trust/distrust, compliance, vaccination, and conspiracy beliefs. Interviews Phase I (December 2020): 40 Interviews Interviews Phase II (April 2021): 38 Interviews Interviews Phase III (September 2021): 38 Interviews