GLES Panel 2021, Control Group I (to Panel Wave 17, Sample A)

´The German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) is the central infrastructure project in Germany for the continuous collection and provision of high-quality data for national and international election research. The methodologically diverse surveys of the GLES enable the research of political attitudes and behavior of voters and candidates. Since its foundation, the GLES has been conducted in close cooperation between the German Society for Electoral Research (DGfW) and GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.

The GLES Panel is a multi-wave survey of Internet users eligible to vote in which respondents are interviewed in election periods before and after the federal election with additional interviews between election years. The GLES Panel is a repeat survey currently consisting of two samples. Samples A1-A3 ´´2017 Election Campaign´´ is composed of respondents from the 2017 election campaign panel. Sample A4 ´´2021 Election Campaign´´ was surveyed for the first time in the fall of 2020 and is also based on a quota selection from the opt-in online access panel operated by Respondi AG. Sample B ´´2017 Pre- and Post-Election´´ consists of the participants ready to be re-interviewed from the 2017 GLES Cross-Section, who were interviewed for the first time in the GLES Panel in parallel with Sample A in the tenth wave of the GLES Panel. The GLES Panel allows for an analysis of changes in individuals´ political attitudes and political behaviour over the course of the election campaign and between federal elections.

In addition to the repeatedly questioned respondents, three independent samples of about 1,200 people were drawn at the same time as the 17th, 19th and 20th survey wave, and were then interviewed using an almost identical questionnaire. By comparing panel and cross-sectional respondents, it is possible to examine whether and to what extent repeated interviewing of the same individuals influences the measurement of political attitudes and behavior. In addition, the control cross-sections represent surveys of their own, independent of the panel, which are equally suitable for analyses of voter behaviour before and after the 2021 federal election. The control groups focused on voting intention and voting decision, political involvement, political attitudes, perception of problems, evaluation of political actors, political media use, party contacts, coalition preferences, reception of TV duels, sociodemographics, personality, and voting behavior in state elections.´