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FGZ Cohesion Panel: Wave 2 – Questions on climate change, antisemitism, and gender equality (English Version)

General Information:

*Note: The items were tested in German. These are English translations of the original German wordings.

Question Text:

To what extent do you feel affected by the following extreme weather events where you live?
[Inwiefern fühlen Sie sich von folgenden Unwetterereignissen an Ihrem Wohnort betroffen?]

Answer Categories:

0 Not affected at all [Überhaupt nicht betroffen]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 Very affected [Sehr betroffen]
The three items of question 5 were answered by all 240 subjects, again using the full range of the response scale for all items (see Table 6 and Figure 1). The subjects felt most affected by storms (M = 6.24, SD = 2.48), followed by heavy rain/floods (M = 5.44, SD = 2.61) and heat waves/drought (M = 5.08, SD = 2.75).
The aim of the pretest was to examine how difficult it was for the subjects to select a value on the 11-point scale and whether an answer scale with fewer scale points would be easier to answer. The corresponding cognitive probes (N1_F5, see Appendix) were asked of the 124 test persons who were (randomly) assigned to Group 1. About one-third of these subjects were asked about items a, b, and c, respectively.
The subjects' answers to the cognitive probes did not provide any indication that the number of scale points should be reduced, that is, no subject stated that answering the question or the individual items would have been easier with fewer scale points. Across the items, it was found that the reasons given by the respondents matched the scale values selected in each case and that the high scale values were selected in particular when extreme weather events had already occurred (e.g., floods or fires).

Cognitive Techniques:

Category Selection Probing
Item Text Actively tested

Item Text:

a.Heat waves / drought
[Hitzewelle/Dürre]

Recommendations:

The results of the pretest do not indicate any problems with the item, so it can be left in its current form.
Yes

Item Text:

b. Heavy rain/flooding
[Starkregen/Überschwemmungen]

Recommendations:

The results of the pretest do not indicate any problems with the item, so it can be left in its current form.
Yes

Item Text:

c. Storms
[Stürme]

Recommendations:

The results of the pretest do not indicate any problems with the item, so it can be left in its current form.
Yes