German Internet Panel, Wave 74 (November 2024)

The German Internet Panel (GIP) is a long-term study conducted at the University of Mannheim. The GIP examines individual attitudes and preferences that are relevant to political and economic decision-making processes. To this end, since 2012, over 3,500 people across Germany have been surveyed online every two months on a wide variety of topics. The GIP is based on a random sample of the general population in Germany aged 16 to 75. The study began in 2012 and was expanded with new participants in 2014 and 2018. Panel participants were recruited offline. The GIP questionnaires cover a wide range of topics related to current events. Instead of a single, continuous questionnaire, the survey is divided into several shorter sections on various topics. The modules were displayed either in random order or in a fixed order. Participants can decide for themselves in what order they would like to answer the various topics and whether they want to complete them all in a row or take a break in between. Employment and Satisfaction: (professional) activities; employment status of the primary job; previous employment status; occupational position; reduced working hours/leave of absence; work location for the primary job (on-site at the employer’s or client’s premises/working from home); opinion on a law granting the right to work from home, if the nature of the job permits it; fixed-term employment contract for the current job; Employment in the public sector; previous employment status; fixed-term employment contract for the most recent job; employment in the public sector in the most recent job; economic sector of the (most recent) occupational activity; satisfaction with various areas of life (family life, leisure time, financial situation, work); overall assessment of this topic area. Module 74 A Social Developments: Party preference in the next federal election (Sunday poll); economic left-right scale (The federal government should redistribute income from the wealthy to the less well-off; the federal government should work to strengthen private enterprise and the market economy, Experiment on Locations and Resources: preferences regarding the federal government’s priorities for allocating a larger portion of the public budget to specific locations (rural regions, towns in rural regions affected by population outflow, towns in rural regions where many people live in poverty, cities, cities where many people live in poverty, cities where many people live in poverty and where many immigrants also live); Experiment on respect for symbols that are sacred to people—experimental factors: religion (Muslims, Jews, Christians), dependent variables: criticizing, disparaging; Experiment on trust in Muslim spiritual counselors (imams) with regard to appropriate spiritual guidance in Germany—experimental factors: education (trained at a domestic university, trained abroad in a country where Islam is the main religion), group (Muslim patients in hospitals/Muslim inmates in prisons); rather positive or rather negative effects on society caused by the following: the climate movement, feminism, immigration, the European Union, the Christian cultural heritage in our country; support for tightening immigration policy regarding refugees/refugees from Ukraine/refugees from non-EU countries; Opinion on the integration of refugees—including refugees from Ukraine and refugees from non-EU countries; assessment of Germans’ views on various measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (fossil fuels [gasoline/diesel] should become more expensive; the use of public transportation should become cheaper; red meat should be more expensive, while plant-based foods should be cheaper; foods with a high carbon footprint should be more expensive, while foods with a low carbon footprint should be cheaper; In Germany, offshore and onshore wind energy generation should be further expanded; more solar panels should be installed on homes; and more solar power plants (solar parks) should be built); assessment of Germans’ attitudes toward meat in cafeterias (no more meat dishes in cafeterias to slow climate change / cafeterias should add more meat-free dishes to the menu to slow climate change, no more pork dishes in cafeterias out of respect for the religious rules of Muslims / Cafeterias should add pork-free dishes to their menus out of consideration for the religious rules of Muslims); identity as a rural person or a city person; Agreement with the statement: Politicians do not pay enough attention to people living outside major cities when shaping their policies; opinion on institutional solidarity in the healthcare system (free healthcare for everyone living in Germany / for everyone living in Germany, including immigrants living in Germany / for all immigrants living in Germany, even if this means tax increases for the majority of working families); opinion on institutional solidarity regarding after-school care (free after-school care for all families with elementary school-aged children living in Germany / all families with elementary school-aged children living in Germany, including immigrants living in Germany / all families of immigrants living in Germany with elementary school-aged children, even if this means tax increases for the majority of working families); opinion on the proposal to sell a centrally located church/public building and convert it into a mosque/convert it into a mosque funded by a foreign Muslim organization/convert it into a hotel operated by an international company; agreement with the statement: Freedom of speech should apply to everyone, regardless of how racist the views expressed are/regardless of how conservative the expressed Islamic views are/regardless of how conservative the expressed Christian views are; agreement with the following statements: Germany should publicly fund or permit the training of imams (Islamic clerics) at established domestic universities that currently train Christian pastors or at domestic institutions operated by Muslim organizations, so that Muslims in Germany do not have to complete this training abroad, in a country where Islam is the main religion; agreement with the statement: Women exaggerate when complaining about sexual harassment in the workplace; to what extent do most people in Germany—women and men—agree or disagree that women exaggerate when it comes to sexual harassment in the workplace; It should be easier vs. harder for non-European immigrants to settle in Germany; best argument for making it easier or harder for non-European immigrants to settle in Germany; evaluation of the arguments: those who are skeptical or supportive of non-European immigration respect this argument; good or bad argument for making it harder or easier for non-European immigrants to settle in Germany; rating of people who believe it should be more difficult/easier for non-European immigrants to settle in Germany on an emotional scale; evaluation of measures to reduce greenhouse gases (CO2 taxation/agricultural reform); agreement with the following statements: Public transportation should be cheaper; fossil fuels (gasoline/diesel) should become more expensive; foods with a high carbon footprint should be more expensive, while foods with a lower carbon footprint should be cheaper; red meat should be more expensive, while plant-based foods should be cheaper; in Germany, offshore and onshore wind energy production should be further expanded; more solar power plants (solar parks) should be built, and more solar panels should be installed on homes; agreement with the proposal that cafeterias stop serving meat-based dishes or add meat-free dishes to the menu to slow climate change, and that cafeterias stop serving pork-based dishes or add pork-free dishes to the menu out of consideration for the religious rules of Muslims; most imams, Christian pastors, and Muslim and non-Muslim politicians in Germany know enough to act in the best interests of the people in their communities, vs. they need to learn more about the lives of their community members; assessment of a possible reform of public holidays at the local level: According to one proposal, all Muslims would be given the day off to celebrate Eid al-Fitr (the breaking of the fast), provided they make up for it with overtime/ everyone in the community would receive an additional day off when Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr (the breaking of the fast)/ everyone in the community would receive the day off when Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr (the breaking of the fast). The holiday will replace one of the statutory Christian holidays/everyone in the community will get a day off when Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr (the breaking of the fast). The holiday will replace an existing statutory holiday; Conjoint experiment to evaluate (agreement with the permission to hold the event, agreement with the view to be disseminated at the event, approval or disapproval of the group wishing to hold the event) a scenario consisting of three different content options with varying attributes regarding gender (she, he), group (a local group, the local AfD group, a local CDU group, the local CDU group, a local anti-Islamic group, the local anti-Islamic group], threat (the rights of gay and lesbian people in Germany, German culture), and relationship (she with her husband, he with his husband, she with her wife, he with his wife); acceptance of negative statements in German society about Muslim women and men; urban vs. rural residential area; national chauvinism (the world would be a better place if people from other countries were more like Germans, Germany is, on the whole, a better country than most other countries, the world would be a better place if Germans acknowledged Germany’s weaknesses); prejudices toward immigration (personally important to be unbiased toward Muslims; I do not want to be perceived as racist, not even by myself); Overall assessment of the topic area. Module 74 B Discrimination and Security: Trust in the Federal Government; Conjoint experiment on discrimination in the workplace. Based on a fictional scenario, participants are asked to assess (1) whether they believe that various population groups are disadvantaged in Germany, (2) whether they would take action to improve equal opportunity—even if it might involve costs for them—and (3) how they evaluate the functioning of democracy when they think about equal opportunity. Experimental factors: gender, social group, civic engagement, psychological distress; agreement with the statement: “The political system of the Federal Republic of Germany protects the fundamental freedoms of its citizens”; Conjoint experiment on justified measures against supporters of extremism. Participants are each given four descriptions of a supporter of extremism and are then asked to assess, for each case, how justified they find the protective measures. Experimental factors: identity of the person (name), orientation of the gym, support for the organization, protective measure; Conjoint experiment on justified measures taken anonymously against supporters of extremism. Participants are each given four descriptions of a supporter of extremism and are then asked to assess, for each case, how justified they find the protective measures. Experimental factors: identity of the person (religion), orientation of the gym, support for the organization, protective measure, nationality; overall assessment of the topic block. Demography: sex; age (year of birth, categorized); highest level of school education; highest level of vocational education; marital status; household size; employment status; German citizenship; frequency of personal internet use; federal state. The following were additionally coded: respondent ID, GIP; household ID, GIP; individual ID (within the household); Year of recruitment (2012, 2014, 2018); interview date; current online status; experimental variables. Questionnaire evaluation (interesting, varied, relevant, long, difficult, too personal); overall assessment of the survey; respondent provided additional comments on the questionnaire.