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:

Would you agree or disagree if, as part of a climate-friendly energy policy in your area,...
[Würden Sie zustimmen oder nicht zustimmen, wenn im Zuge einer klimafreundlichen Energiepolitik in ihrer Umgebung...]

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]
As shown in Table 9, there was no item nonresponse for question 8, that is, all five items were answered by the 240 subjects. The subjects used the full range of the response scale for all items. The majority of respondents agreed with the construction of wind turbines, an underground high-voltage line and a large-scale solar plant (item a: 62 %, item b: 59 %, item d: 67 %). In contrast, more re-spondents disagreed than agreed with the construction of a high-voltage transmission line with masts and a modern nuclear power plant (item c: 44 % vs. 22 %, item e: 55 % vs. 26 %). Furthermore, for items b and c, the proportion of respondents selecting the middle category was relatively high (item b: 28 %, item c: 34 %).
The aim of the pretest was to investigate whether the respondents were aware of the connection be-tween the infrastructure measures mentioned in items b, c and e and climate protection and whether the reasons given for their answers matched the selected scale values. The corresponding cognitive probes (N1_F8, see Appendix) were asked of the 116 subjects who were (randomly) assigned to Group 2. About one-third of these subjects received a probe on items b, c, and e, respectively.
The connection between the mentioned infrastructure measures and climate protection was only questioned by one test person (TP365) in item c ("High-voltage lines with masts are the normal state, aren't they? Why in the context of a climate-friendly energy policy?", answer: neither agree nor disagree). No other test person commented on the connection between the items and climate protection.
With the exception of a few test persons who did not give evaluable answers to the cognitive follow-up questions, the respondents' justifications matched the respective selected scale values.

Cognitive Techniques:

General Probing
Item Text Actively tested
a. … wind turbines were to be built?
[...Windräder gebaut werden sollen?]
No

Item Text:

b. ...a high-voltage line was to be laid underground?
[...eine Hochspannungsleitung in der Erde verlegt werden soll?]

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. ...a high-voltage power line with masts was to be built?
[...eine Hochspannungsleitung mit Masten gebaut werden soll?]

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. ...a large-scale solar plant was to be built?
[...eine großflächige Solaranlage gebaut werden soll?]
No

Item Text:

e. ...a modern nuclear power plant was to be put into operation?
[ ...ein modernes Kernkraftwerk in Betrieb genommen werden soll?]

Recommendations:

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