Social Cohesion Radar 2023 - Germany

The study on social cohesion in Germany was conducted by pollytix strategic research on behalf of the Bertelsmann Stiftung. During the survey period from October 4 to 17, 2023, 5,055 people aged 16 and over were surveyed nationwide in online interviews (CAWI) on the following topics: media use and media trust, social cohesion, dealing with disinformation, combating disinformation. The respondents were selected using a quota sample from an online access panel from Bilendi & respondi. The data was collected on a quota basis according to age, gender, federal state and education. The study is part of the Radar project, which has been investigating various aspects of social cohesion both nationally and internationally since 2013.<br>1. Media use and media confidence: Knowledge of different social media (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, etc.), frequency of use of these social media; media confidence.

2. Social relationships: Connectedness with the neighborhood, place of residence, region and state; size of circle of friends and acquaintances; frequency of meetings with friends, acquaintances or privately with work colleagues; help from friends in case of difficulties; financial support from friends or acquaintances in an emergency.

Trust in fellow human beings and institutions: general trust in people; trust in strangers; trust in institutions (political parties, courts, police, federal government, Bundestag, public broadcasting (ARD, ZDF), daily newspapers, social media, science); sense of justice (e.g. social differences in the country are fair, pay according to performance, etc.).

3. Orientation towards the common good:
Solidarity and willingness to help: monetary donation to social or charitable causes in the last 12 months; frequency of volunteering.

Social participation: Type of political involvement in the last twelve months (e.g. participation in a demonstration or collection of signatures for political causes, etc.); membership in a non-profit association or organization.

Tolerance and diversity: Life in Germany threatened vs. enriched by increasing diversity; acceptance of diversity in the neighborhood (people with a completely different lifestyle, people with a different religion, foreigners/migrants, homosexuals and people with different political opinions); feeling of safety in the neighborhood; feeling of safety at night in the neighborhood; various problems in the neighborhood (e.g. dog excrement on the street, parking offenders, etc.).

4. Dealing with disinformation: uncertainty with regard to the truthfulness of information on the internet; knowledge of the term disinformation; assessment of disinformation (e.g. manipulated content (deep fakes), statements taken out of context, etc.); frequency of perception of deliberately disseminated false information on the internet; source of perceived disinformation; frequency of perception of disinformation in various social media; frequency of disinformation via messenger or text message by people in the community; topics of perceived disinformation on the internet; frequency of dissemination of disinformation on the internet by various actors (politicians and parties in Germany, media and journalists in Germany, bloggers and influencers, foreign governments, foreign media and journalists, protest groups and activists, individuals, commercial enterprises, federal government); reasons for the dissemination of disinformation on the internet ( e.g. to weaken trust in politics and democracy, etc.); disinformation with the aim of influencing political opinions more frequently by actors from the political right, actors from the political left or both to the same extent; disinformation in Germany more frequently by actors from Germany, actors from abroad or both to the same extent; assessment of the risk of influencing opinions through disinformation (self and others); perception of disinformation on the Internet as a problem for society; extent of attention paid to the topic of disinformation on the Internet; concerns regarding disinformation in Germany (e.g. trust in politics and democracy declining, credibility of the media declining, society becoming divided, etc.); personal approach to disinformation); personal handling of disinformation (accidentally liking or spreading false information on the Internet, reporting a post or account on social media containing disinformation, alerting someone to the spread of false information with a comment or message, actively researching whether a message is true, deliberately liking or spreading false information on the Internet, asking the sender of the message about the source and truthfulness of dubious messages, using the services of a fact-checking organization).

5. Combating disinformation: importance of different actors in combating disinformation (platforms, politics in Germany, European Union, media, citizens, schools and other educational institutions); actors most likely to be obliged to combat disinformation; most competent actor in combating disinformation; evaluation of proposals on how to prevent the spread of disinformation on the Internet (deletion of demonstrably false claims, correction of demonstrably false claims, etc.); opinion on disinformation (citizens should only have access to correct information and be protected from disinformation vs. ); opinion on disinformation (citizens should only have access to correct information on the internet and be protected from disinformation vs. citizens have a right to freedom of expression, even if disinformation remains on the internet; disinformation is a real problem and poses a threat to social cohesion and democracy vs. disinformation is just a term used to denigrate alternative opinions and portray them as untrustworthy; priority of freedom of expression vs. protection of citizens from disinformation on various topics (corona, war in Ukraine, immigration/refugee, climate change/ natural disasters, elections); agreement with various demands to politicians in Germany regarding disinformation (existing regulations for platform operators should be enforced more consistently and violations should be punished more severely, police and judiciary should be given more staff to take action against disinformation and hate on the Internet, fact-checking organizations should receive more money, media literacy of all citizens should be promoted, an independent, non-governmental institution should be founded to deal with the issue).

Demography: sex; age (years and age groups); net household income, highest school-leaving qualification; employment; interest in politics; left-right scale; probability of own participation in the next elections; party preference (Sunday question); voting behavior in the last federal election; children under 18 in the household; university degree; born in Germany; parents immigrated to Germany (migration background).

Additionally coded were: Respondent ID; interview date; weighting factor; federal state; district or district-free city; settlement structure.