Diversity of Opinion in an Open Society

The study on diversity of opinion in an open society was conducted by USUMA on behalf of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. In the survey period from 01.12.2021 to 07.04.2022, the German-speaking resident population aged 16 and over (N= 5. 511, including two top-ups of N=406 respondents aged between 16 and 20 and N=502 Muslims) were surveyed in telephone interviews (CATI) on the following topics: interest in politics, left-right scale, feelings of threat, extremist attitudes, left-wing extremist attitudes, right-wing extremist attitudes, populism, conspiracy theories, acceptance of violence, trust in institutions, closeness/dislike of parties, Sunday question. The respondents were selected using a stratified random sample from an ADM selection frame including landline and mobile phone numbers (dual-frame sample).<br>Party preference (Sunday question); alternative Sunday question; left-right scale; feelings of threat (worldwide climate change due to global warming, immigration to Germany, economic crisis in Germany, right-wing extremism in Germany, left-wing extremism in Germany, Islamic extremism in Germany, xenophobia in Germany, spread of fake news, the AfD or the left is calling the shots in Germany); extremist attitudes (e.g. Israel should no longer exist as a state, German society is being infiltrated by Muslims, compromises prevent solutions to real problems, the bourgeois state should be abolished, etc.); trust in institutions (German Bundestag, German federal government, courts, police, Office for the Protection of the Constitution, public media such as ARD and ZDF); left-wing extremist attitudes; right-wing extremist attitudes; populism; acceptance of violence; see black for Germany vs. trust that Germany will overcome future challenges; preferred mode of resolving political conflicts in the policy areas of environmental and climate policy, immigration policy, social policy and politics in general: compromises vs. sticking to positions and enforcing them; satisfaction with democracy; conspiracy theories: Evaluation of various claims as true or false (the climate is changing more due to human influence, the corona virus is an excuse to oppress people, there are secret powers controlling the world); specific naming of secret powers controlling the world.

Demography: sex; age; denomination or religious community; frequency of church attendance; German citizenship; highest level of education; employment situation; unemployment for more than 6 months; personal migration background or migration background of parents; assessment of household income; in which current federal state did the respondent grow up; federal state; size of location; size of household; number of persons in the household under 16 years of age; willingness to participate in in-depth telephone interview.

Additionally coded were: Respondent ID; weight; interview date; interview time before the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine on 24.02.2022 or after the start of the war from 24.02. 2022; statement corrected that there are secret powers controlling the world; dual frame: Multiple use of mobile phone numbers (number of people aged 16 and over); number of mobile phone numbers via which the respondent can be reached personally; number of landline numbers; willingness to participate in qualitative interview; right-wing extremism score, left-wing extremism score, Islamism score, populism score, conspiracy score, other score; right-wing extremism core, left-wing extremism core, Islamism core, populism core; start of interview (time); end of interview (time).