Abstract:

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 subject of this pretest are questions on social media, politics and society that were revised or newly developed for the GLES surveys in the context of the 2021 federal election.
The questions were tested by means of telephone cognitive interviews.

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

Citation:

Nießen, D., Lenzner, T., Hadler, P., Quint, F., Steins, P., & Neuert, C. (2020): German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) 2021 (English Version). Cognitive Pretest. GESIS Project Reports. Version: 1.0. GESIS - Pretestlab. Text.

DOI:

http://doi.org/10.17173/pretest130

Question No.	Pretesting Results	Type	Construct	Question documented in ZIS
1	How often do you use the Internet for private purposes, whether by means of a computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone? [Wie häufig nutzen Sie das Internet für private Zwecke, sei es mittels eines Computers, Laptops, Tablets oder Smartphones?]	Single Question	Frequency of internet use for private purposes	No
2	Version a. For how long approximately do you use the Internet for private purposes on a usual day? Please provide the time in hours and minutes. [Wie lange ungefähr nutzen Sie an einem gewöhnlichen Tag das Internet für private Zwecke? Bitte geben Sie die Zeit in Stunden und Minuten an.] Version b.On average, how long per day do you use the Internet for personal purposes? Please estimate the time in hours and minutes . [Wie lange pro Tag nutzen Sie das Internet im Durchschnitt für private Zwecke? Bitte schätzen Sie die Zeit in Stunden und Minuten.]	Single Question	Duration of Internet use for private purposes (open vs. closed)	No
3	Which social media do you use occasionally or regularly? [Welche sozialen Medien nutzen Sie gelegentlich oder regelmäßig?]	Single Question	General use of social media (open vs. closed)	No
4	And please indicate which social media you occasionally or regularly use for political information. [Und geben Sie bitte an, in welchen sozialen Medien Sie sich gelegentlich oder regelmäßig politisch informieren.]	Single Question	Political use of social media	No
5	Version a. When you use social media, how often do you encounter information about political topics? [Wenn Sie soziale Medien nutzen, wie häufig begegnen Ihnen da Informationen über politische Themen?] Version b. When you think of the information you see on social media, how often is there information about political topics? Please estimate the share in percentage. [Wenn Sie an alle Informationen denken, die Sie in sozialen Medien sehen, wie häufig sind da-runter Informationen über politische Themen? Bitte schätzen Sie den Anteil in Prozent.]	Single Question	Proportion of political content when using social media (closed vs. open)	No
6	On how many days in the past week did you see or read posts about political issues on social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter? [An wie vielen Tagen in der vergangenen Woche haben Sie in sozialen Netzwerken, wie z. B. Facebook oder Twitter, Beiträge über politische Themen gesehen oder gelesen?]	Single Question	Frequency of political content when using social media	No
7	Do you follow politicians or political parties on social media or have you subscribed to such channels? If yes, from which parties? [Folgen Sie in sozialen Medien Politikerinnen und Politikern oder politischen Parteien oder haben Sie entsprechende Kanäle abonniert? Falls ja, von welchen Parteien?]	Single Question	Political subscriptions on social media	No
8	The following questions are about the federal election campaign in 2017 and the activities of the parties as well as the candidates. Please ignore all other elections that took place in the mentioned year. [Nun folgen Fragen zum Bundestagswahlkampf im Jahr 2017 und den Aktivitäten der Parteien sowie den Kandidatinnen und Kandidaten. Lassen Sie bitte alle anderen Wahlen, die im genannten Jahr stattgefunden haben, außer Acht.]	Multi-Item Scale	Party contacts during the federal election campaign 2017	No
9	What is your opinion on the topic of immigration opportunities for foreigners? [Wie ist Ihre Meinung zum Thema Zuzugsmöglichkeiten für Ausländer?]	Single Question	Immigration opportunities for foreigners	No
10	Now various statements follow that some people agree with, but others disagree with. What about you? For each statement, please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with it. [Nun folgen verschiedene Aussagen, denen manche Leute zustimmen, die andere aber auch ablehnen. Wie ist das bei Ihnen? Geben Sie bitte zu jeder Aussage an, inwieweit Sie ihr zustimmen oder nicht.]	Multi-Item Scale	Authoritarianism, populism, detachement
11	When you think about the condition of society in Germany - how fair or unfair is it, all in all? [Wenn Sie einmal an den Zustand der Gesellschaft in Deutschland denken – wie gerecht oder ungerecht geht es da alles in allem zu?]	Single Question	Macrojustice	No
12	Version a. How strongly do you care about the campaign for the upcoming federal election? [Wie stark interessiert Sie der Wahlkampf zur bevorstehenden Bundestagswahl?] Version b. How important is it to you personally how the upcoming federal election turns out? [Wie wichtig ist es Ihnen persönlich, wie die kommende Bundestagswahl ausgeht?]	Single Question	Interest in the campaign & importance of the outcome of the election	No
13	How likely do you think it is that the FDP will get enough votes to enter the Bundestag in the upcoming federal election? [Für wie wahrscheinlich halten Sie es, dass die FDP bei der bevorstehenden Bundestagswahl genügend Stimmen bekommt, um in den Bundestag einzuziehen?]	Single Question	Probability of the FDP entering the Bundestag	No
14	Many people see climate change as proven. Others, however, doubt that the climate is changing. What do you believe? [Viele Menschen sehen den Klimawandel als erwiesen an. Andere bezweifeln hingegen, dass sich das Klima ändert. Was glauben Sie? ]	Single Question	Belief in climate change	No
15	Now follow various statements that some people agree with, but others disagree with. What about you? For each statement, please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree. [Nun folgen verschiedene Aussagen, denen manche Leute zustimmen, die andere aber auch ablehnen. Wie ist das bei Ihnen? Geben Sie bitte zu jeder Aussage an, inwieweit Sie ihr zustimmen oder nicht.]	Multi-Item Scale	Opinions on climate change	No
16	In Germany, different groups live side by side. What do you think about the following statement? Based on my personal values, I believe it is wrong to be prejudiced against blacks. [In Deutschland leben verschiedene Gruppen Seite an Seite nebeneinander. Was meinen Sie zu der folgenden Aussage? Aufgrund meiner persönlichen Werte, glaube ich, dass es falsch ist, gegenüber Schwarzen voreingenommen zu sein.]	Single Question	Racism	No

Number of Participants:

Selection of Target Population/Quotas:

Quota selection. The test subjects were supposed to use social media, which was ensured by means of filter questions during recruitment.
Cross quotas by gender (m/w) x age (18–45, 46+) x education (with/without university entrance qualification) = 2 x 2 x 2 groups

Test Date:

10/2020 - 11/2020

Number of cognitive interviewers:

Pretests conducted in the lab (video-recorded):

Pretests conducted via phone or externally (audio-recorded):

Survey mode:

CAWI

Pretest mode:

CATI

Procedure:

The cognitive interviews were conducted by telephone. The test persons were asked to have a computer with Internet access ready for the interview. The link to the online questionnaire to be tested was sent to the test persons by e-mail at the beginning of the cognitive interview. The test persons first answered the questions in the online questionnaire independently on the computer and communicated their respective answers to the cognitive interviewers. After each of the questions to be tested, cognitive follow-up questions were asked (concurrent probing), whereby the participants were able to follow the individual questions to be tested and their answers on the computer screen.

Incentive for respondents:

30 Euro

Project Description:

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 study of the political attitudes and behaviors of voters and candidates. Since its inception, the GLES has been conducted in close cooperation between the German Society for Electoral Research (DGfW) and GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences.

Website:

https://gles.eu

Client:

GESIS

Dr. Manuela Blumenberg

Pretest Report (German):

Pretest Report (English):

Interview protocol (German):

Interview protocol (English):

Citation: Nießen, D., Lenzner, T., Hadler, P., Quint, F., Steins, P., & Neuert, C. (2020): German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) 2021 (English Version). Cognitive Pretest. GESIS Project Reports. Version: 1.0. GESIS - Pretestlab. Text.

German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) 2021 (English Version) - Cognitive Pretest