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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 agree with the following statements about climate change?
[Inwieweit stimmen Sie den folgenden Aussagen zum Thema Klimawandel zu?]

Answer Categories:

Strongly disagree [Stimme überhaupt nicht zu]
Rather disagree [Stimme eher nicht zu]
Neither agree nor disagree [Teils-teils]
Rather agree [Stimme eher zu]
Strongly agree [Stimme voll und ganz zu]
Table 5 shows the frequency distributions of question 4. As can be seen, there was no item nonresponse for question 4, that is, all six items were answered by all 240 subjects. The test persons used the full range of the response scale for all items. With the exception of item b, the frequency distributions of the items are left or right skewed, that is, the (sometimes large) majority of respondents agreed or disagreed with the respective statements. To determine the internal consistency of the 6-item scale, Cronbach's alpha was calculated. With Cronbach's alpha of 0.87, the internal consistency can be described as good (cf. George & Mallery, 2002, p. 231).

The aim of the pretest was to investigate what the respondents understood by their "own actions" in item c and whether they had thought of similar or very different behaviors. Furthermore, it was to be analyzed how the respondents justified their answers to item e and item f and whether the justifications matched the chosen answer options. The corresponding cognitive probes (N1_F4 to N3_F4, see Appendix) were asked of the 116 test persons who were assigned (in a random manner) to Group 2. About one third of these subjects received a probe on items c, e, and f, respectively.

Cognitive Techniques:

Comprehension Probing, General Probing
Item Text Actively tested
a. Climate change is not as dangerous as many politicians claim.
[Der Klimawandel ist gar nicht so gefährlich wie viele Politiker behaupten.] 		No
b. Climate change is a topic I often talk about with relatives, friends or acquaintances.
[Der Klimawandel ist ein Thema, über das ich häufig mit Verwandten, Freunden oder Bekannten rede.] 		No

Item Text:

c. I try to contribute to climate protection with my own actions
[Ich versuche, mit meinem eigenen Handeln einen Beitrag zum Klimaschutz zu leisten]

Recommendations:

The results of the pretest do not indicate any problems with the item, so it can be left in its current form.
Yes
d. I am afraid when I think about the consequences of climate change.
[Ich habe Angst, wenn ich an die Folgen des Klimawandels denke.] 		No

Item Text:

e.It makes me angry that not enough is being done to stop climate change.
[Es macht mich wütend, dass nicht genug getan wird, um den Klimawandel aufzuhalten.]

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:

f. To effectively combat climate change, the economic system must undergo a radical change.
[Um den Klimawandel wirksam zu bekämpfen, muss das Wirtschaftssystem von Grund auf verändert werden.]

Recommendations:

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