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Probes are follow-ups to survey questions used to gain insights on respondents' understanding of and responses to these questions. They are usually administered as open-ended questions, primarily in the context of questionnaire pretesting. Due to the decreased cost of data collection for open-ended questions in web surveys, researchers have argued for embedding more open-ended probes in large-scale web surveys. However, there are concerns that this may cause reactivity and impact survey data. The study presents a randomized experiment in which identical survey questions were run with and without open-ended probes. Embedding open-ended probes resulted in higher levels of survey break off, as well as increased backtracking and answer changes to previous questions. In most cases, there was no impact of open-ended probes on the cognitive processing of and response to survey questions. Implications for embedding open-ended probes into web surveys are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown many instances where nonprobability surveys were not as accurate as probability surveys. However, because of their cost advantages, nonprobability surveys are widely used, and there is much debate over the appropriate settings for their use. To contribute to this debate, we evaluate the accuracy of nonprobability surveys by investigating the common claim that estimates of relationships are more robust to sample bias than means or proportions. We compare demographic, attitudinal, and behavioral variables across eight German probability and nonprobability surveys with demographic and political benchmarks from the microcensus and a high-quality, face-to-face survey. In the analyses, we compare three types of statistical inference: univariate estimates, bivariate Pearson's r coefficients, and 24 different multiple regression models. The results indicate that in univariate comparisons, nonprobability surveys were clearly less accurate than probability surveys when compared with the population benchmarks. These differences in accuracy were smaller in the bivariate and the multivariate comparisons across surveys. In addition, the outcome of those comparisons largely depended on the variables included in the estimation. The observed sample differences are remarkable when considering that three nonprobability surveys were drawn from the same online panel. Adjusting the nonprobability surveys somewhat improved their accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent evidence suggests that in many European countries generally positive views about societal diversity predominate. Yet, as research has rather focussed on negative attitudes towards immigration and diversity, less is known about positive attitudes and those who hold them. The paper makes a conceptual and an empirical contribution to filling this gap. We introduce a multidimensional concept, "diversity assent", to capture both evaluations of diversity and attitudes towards reflecting diversity in societal institutions. We test the concept using the case of urban Germany, drawing from a large, purpose-built survey. We demonstrate that, while assent differs for the two dimensions, a sizeable majority of those who evaluate diversity positively also agree with representing diversity in official policy and institutions, with some differences along socio-political lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contact hypothesis and threat hypothesis are among the most influential theories of xenophobia. The former proposes that intergroup contact may reduce prejudice. The latter suggests that a large outgroup may increase xenophobic attitudes. Using data of a 2018 German representative sample (N = 2,016), we employed multilevel analyses. As predictors, we looked at outgroup size, gross domestic product, and unemployment rate on a county level. On the individual level, we included authoritarianism and a wide range of sociodemographic variables. Individual authoritarianism was identified as the strongest predictor of xenophobic attitudes. On the county level, a higher proportion of migrants was associated with lower values of xenophobia. This serves as an indicator for contact hypothesis. Our results suggest that contextualizing social psychological and micro-sociological theories and employing multilevel analyses are valuable tools to detangle the interplay of individual and contextual influences on xenophobic attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of GENDER: Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft is the property of Verlag Barbara Budrich GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An increasing number of research projects and infrastructure services involve pooling data across different survey programs. Creating a homogenous integrated dataset from heterogeneous source data is the domain of ex-post harmonization. The harmonization process involves various considerations. However, chief among them is whether two survey measurement instruments have captured the same concept. This issue of conceptual comparability is a fundamental precondition for pooling different source variables to form a harmonized target variable. Our paper explores this issue with a mixed-methods approach. On the one hand, we use psychometric latent variable modeling by presenting several single-item wordings for social trust to respondents and then performing factor analytic procedures. On the other hand, we complement and contrast these quantitative findings with qualitative findings gained with an open-ended web probe. The combined approach gave valuable insights into the conceptual comparability of the eleven social-trust-related single-item wordings. For example, we find that negative, distrust-related wordings and positive, trust-related wordings should not be pooled into an integrated variable. However, the paper will also illustrate and discuss why it is easier to disprove conceptual comparability than fully prove it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In response to climate change (CC), medicine needs to consider new aspects in health counselling of patients. Such climate-sensitive health counselling (CSHC) may include counselling patients on preventing and coping with climate-sensitive diseases or on leading healthy and climate-friendly lifestyles. This study aimed to identify previous participation in and preferences for CSHC as well as associated sociodemographic and attitudinal factors among the general public in Germany. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in a population-based online panel in five German federal states (04–06/2022). We performed descriptive statistics and multivariable regression analysis to assess prior participation in CSHC and content preferences regarding CSHC, as well as associations between sociodemographic variables and general preference for CSHC. Results: Among 1491 participants (response rate 47.1%), 8.7% explicitly reported having participated in CSHC, while 39.9% had discussed at least one CSHC-related topic with physicians. In the studied sample, 46.7% of participants would like CSHC to be part of the consultation with their physician, while 33.9% rejected this idea. Participants aged 21 to 40 years (versus 51 to 60), individuals alarmed about CC (versus concerned/cautious/disengaged/doubtful/dismissive), and those politically oriented to the left (vs. centre or right) showed greater preference for CSHC in the multivariable regression model. Most participants wanted to talk about links to their personal health (65.1%) as opposed to links to the health of all people (33.2%). Conclusions: Almost half of the participants in this sample would like to receive CSHC, especially those who are younger, more alarmed about CC and more politically oriented to the left. More research and training on patient-centred implementation of CSHC is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political participation is socially distorted: Socio-economic resources affecting the probability of individuals becoming politically active question the principle of political equality. Such inequality in participation based on social stratification is well documented for elections, while research on inequality in referendum participation is still scarce. Based on the observation that such inequality varies between referendums, this paper explores referendum-specific contextual factors that may affect socially distorted referendum participation. We leverage information from an original dataset covering 1788 districts in 35 German municipalities for 68 local referendums held between 2000 and 2019. The results of our multilevel models indicate that concurrent first-order elections boost referendum turnout and decrease social stratification, while the closeness of the decision increases turnout but does not affect stratification bias. Moreover, we find a curvilinear relationship between turnout and stratification, with stratification only diminishing from participation levels above 40–50%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Transfer: Zeitschrift für Kommunikation & Markenmanagement is the property of Deutsche Werbewissenschaftliche Gesellschaft and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The increase in inequalities during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been the topic of intense scholarly and public debate. School closures are one of the containment measures that have been debated most critically in this regard. What drives support for closures of schools and pre-school services (daycare/kindergarten) during a public health crisis such as the current COVID-19 pandemic? More specifically, does inequality awareness affect this support? Theoretically, we assume that providing information on current levels of inequality can change policy preferences, as it increases awareness of their consequences for inequality. Moreover, we assume that the strength of the association between information provision and policy support varies across individuals—depending on their exposure to these policies, and the political attitudes that they hold. To identify causal linkages between awareness of inequalities and support for school and daycare/kindergarten closures, we use a survey experiment with information treatment, in which we randomly assign information designed to prime the respondents to think about either education inequality, gender inequality, or both. The experiment, involving more than 3,000 respondents, was conducted in the spring of 2021 at the end of a prolonged lockdown in Germany when a new piece of legislation was enacted, enabling or restricting school reopenings based on local infection rates. Using Probit Regression models for dichotomous dependent variables, we show that raising awareness of education inequality and gender inequality via an information treatment is associated with decreasing support for preschool and primary school closures. We also find that past exposure to school-closure policies strengthens the effects of information treatments, whereas previous political attitudes do not moderate the association between information treatments and support for preschool and school closures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While previous research has focused on terrorist attacks and natives' attitudes towards immigration, we examine the effect of anti-refugee attacks on refugees' attitude towards the host country. We use survey data from the 33rd wave of the German Socio-Economic Panel as the fieldwork period overlapped with the infamous anti-refugee riots in Bautzen and as the survey includes a refugee sample. Making use of this natural experiment, we find significant and negative short-term effects of the riots on respondents' perception of Germany, as well as low geographic variation. Such natural experiments in the form of unexpected events during survey design offer social scientists the possibilities to identify causal effects from observational survey data as they split respondents into a control and treatment group. Given the vast amount of (cross-)national survey data, often including specific subsamples, our study demonstrates the great potential of natural experiments for sociological research on minority groups in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the recent years, research on the conditions, under which members of the host countries such as Germany perceive refugees as threatening and respond with negative attitudes, has increased. However, little attention has been given to the implications that subjective perceptions of threat among the host community may have for their own psychological health. Using integrated threat theory, the current study examined the relationships between perceived threats, person-centered antecedents in intercultural settings, and psychological distress among Germans, who reflected on incoming refugees. Using a survey company, a sample (N = 1000) was recruited, which matched the German census regarding central demographics. Participants completed a cross-sectional online survey with validated self-report measures. Assessments covered four perceived threat types (intergroup anxiety, symbolic and realistic threat, negative stereotypes), person-related antecedents (social identity as German, quantity and quality of prior intercultural contact), and psychological distress. Applying structural equation modeling, we found that high social identification as German was related to greater perceptions of symbolic/realistic threat, stronger negative stereotypes and to more intergroup anxiety. Vice versa, high quality of prior intercultural contact experiences was associated with a decrease of all threat types. The quantity of prior intercultural contact showed almost no relations to perceived threats. In terms of indirect effects, greater quality of contact predicted less distress, and greater identity as German predicted more distress, both via symbolic/realistic threat and intergroup anxiety. Taken together, perceiving refugees as a threatening outgroup may signify a self-harming risk, while high quality of intercultural relations may indirectly enhance health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a framework to analyze realignment processes in countries that transition from industrial to knowledge societies. It characterizes the electorate in terms of two traits that are main predictors for attitudes in a two-dimensional policy space of economic and noneconomic issues: income (low vs. high) and education (low vs. high). The framework divides the electorate into four groups—based on the interaction of these two dichotomized traits—and predicts how and when the voting propensities of these four groups change over time. Using a wide variety of data sources, the article tests hypotheses regarding changing voting behavior of education-income groups, as well as cross-national differences across twenty-one rich democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Lowering the voting age from 18 to 16 years has recently been a hot topic of the political debate in many democratic countries. This study investigated whether the voting quality of 16–17‐year‐olds is inferior to that of the voting population. Shortly before the 2021 German federal election, two samples, representative for age and gender, indicated personal preferences about various political issues and weighted them according to importance, allowing for the calculation of individual expected values for political parties. Participants then indicated their voting choice. These choices were normatively correct when individuals voted for the party that best reflected their preferences, that is, the one maximizing the expected value. Results show that the voting decisions of 16–17‐year‐olds were as good as those by eligible voters. The study indicates that the exclusion of 16–17‐year‐old Germans in democratic elections cannot be justified by their lack of decision‐making ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The secondary transfer effect proposes that contact with an outgroup impacts attitudes towards another, secondary outgroup. For positive contact, three pathways have been identified for the effect: attitude generalization, multiculturalism, and ingroup reappraisal (deprovincialization hypothesis, operationalized here as national pride). Research on negative secondary transfer effects is still scarce. Using data from a German nationally representative survey, we investigated negative secondary transfer effects from foreigners to refugees. The three pathways were compared while considering positive and refugee contact. Negative and positive secondary transfer effects both occurred (partially) mediated via attitude generalization and multiculturalism but not via national pride. We conclude there might be a risk of generalizing prejudice from unrelated negative experiences via these two mechanisms. Research on forced migration and intergroup contact should further explore them with the ultimate goal of preventing negative secondary transfer effects. Longitudinal or experimental research is needed to address causality, ideally involving various outgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the socio-demographic attributes and political attitudes of protesters in Germany. In doing so, the paper studies participation at demonstrations, one of the key forms of non-electoral political participation in Germany and a central political arena in which to negotiate political and cultural conflicts. Methodologically, we draw on original data from nine protest surveys collected between 2003 and 2020. The demonstrations under scrutiny address a wide variety of issues such as peace, climate change, global justice, immigration, international trade and social policy. Analysing protesters' profiles, we focus on differences both within and across demonstrations. We show that demonstrators' socio-demographic and attitudinal characteristics diverge considerably across the surveyed demonstrations. In particular, we identify two clusters of demonstrations, differing most prominently regarding participants' political trust, satisfaction with democracy, and perceptions of self-efficacy – the 'disenchanted critics' and the 'confident critics'. Based on a regression analysis across all nine demonstrations, we further show that the distinction of these two demonstration clusters is not the result of the presence or absence of certain groups of demonstrators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diese Studie analysiert anhand einer Datenkumulation von mehr als 37.000 Erstehen aus verschiedenen deutschen Umfrageprogrammen, ob sich die intergenerationale Transmission von Scheidung in Ost- und Westdeutschland im Kohortenvergleich gewandelt hat. Die Studie ist in der Lage, frühere Ergebnisse zur Scheidungstransmission über verschiedene deutsche Datenquellen hinweg zu replizieren. In Bezug auf zeitliche Veränderungen sprechen die Ergebnisse jedoch hauptsächlich für eine Stabilität der Scheidungstransmission in Ost- und Westdeutschland. Dieser Befund ändert sich nicht, wenn man für das relative Heiratsalter kontrolliert und berücksichtigt, dass Scheidungskinder möglicherweise zunehmend dazu neigen, andere Lebensformen anstelle der Ehe zu wählen. Die Ergebnisse dieser Studie werden im Hinblick auf verschiedene theoretische Argumente für Veränderungen in der Scheidungstransmission diskutiert. This study analyzes trends in divorce transmission in East and West Germany based on a unique data cumulation of more than 37,000 first marriages stemming from different German surveys. The study can replicate previous findings on divorce transmission across different German data sources. However, with respect to temporal changes, the results mainly speak for stability of divorce transmission across birth cohorts in East and West Germany. This finding does not change when controlling for the relative age at marriage, taking into account that children of divorce might increasingly tend to choose other living arrangements instead of marriage. The results of this study are discussed with respect to different theoretical arguments for changes in divorce transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Politische Vierteljahresschrift is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)