Category: News

Today I published a new study that analyzed the HBS-working force panel regarding Covid-Skepticism and Conspiracy Myths (N=5.047). Here are the four main findings:

Covid Skepticism and Conspiracy Myths remain widespread in Germany in Summer 2021 – regardless of lower Covid-incidences or lower protests: 18% of the German workforce with agreement to all items. Agreement is rather rising than decreasing compared to earlier timepoints in the pandemic.

The items of Covid Skepticism and harsh Conspiracy Myths are very highly correlated: respondents sharing skepticism in most cases also agree to Conspiracy Myths – only a few differentiate between the items.

Several groups with above-average agreement (interestingly these groups are very stable: the same groups with above-average agreement last summer) 1. The Deprived (low income or low education): increased powerlessness; 2. The financially Burdened during the Crisis (massive loss of control); 3. The Younger (who perceive lower Covid health threats while suffering everyday hardship); 4. Those spared by the virus (here it´s easier to maintain myth of harmless virus) and 5. Respondents in Eastern Germany (who report a much higher distrust in political institutions).

Conspiracy Myths pose a signfificant threat to democratic societies as they have problematic behavior implications: 1. Those agreeing to Skepticism and Conspiracy Myths with very low commitment to established German parties; they predominantly vote for the right-wing populist AfD or do not vote at all. 2. They report much more frequently reckless and rule-violating pandemic behavior. 3. They very frequently have not been vaccinated yet and do not intent to.

The full study can be downloaded here. Here is the press release.

The first study of my main project at Hans-Böckler-Foundation (together with Dorothea Voss & Bettina Kohlrausch) has been published. We analyzed how “soziale Lebenslagen”, work and especially Transformation is related to anti-democratic attitudes, i.e. right-wing populist attitudes and Group-focused Enmity. We could find that particularly deprived persons and persons with anomic disorientation share those anti-democratic attitudes. Persons integrated in the working force agrees to a lesser extent than retirees or unemployed persons. But more important than the sheer integration in the job market are the working conditions that show effects on the approval of anti-democratic attitudes. Finally, whether respondents are well positioned for the upcoming huge transformational challenges of digitalization and climate change is closely related to anti-democratic attitudes. They constitute enormous challenges for maintaining the democratic integration of many persons facing substantial upheavals.

Here are three threads with several figures:

A short overview:

detailed findings on the role of life circumstances and work:

detailed findings on the role of transformation:

The full study can be downloaded here. The press release can be downloaded here.

I reanalyzed the last wave of HBS´s working force panel (from July 2021) to see where there´s still potential for Germany´s sluggish vaccination campaign. I could find that several demographics are related to the vaccination status and willingness: deprived persons (income or education), younger persons or immigrants haven´t been reached by the campaign sufficiently. Moreover, there is a considerable share of vaccination opponents among Eastern Germans. Most promblematically: anti-vaxxers show more risky behavior, less adherence of the Corona-precautionary measures and are less afraid of infecting themselves or others. Moreover, they are not reached by the democratic parties – their main voting preference is the right-wing populist AfD or they are nonvoters. Here are the main results in a thread with figures:

Today, I was invited to the 90 minutes German live radio show “Lebenszeit” of Deutschlandfunk (@DLF) on “endurancetest pandemic”. I presented our findings on how parents got throught the pandemic and also had the chance to share some personal stories. Find the whole interview here. Here´s the link to the study I presented.

Yesterday, my WSI colleague Aline Zucco contributed to the Bundestag Commitee “Parlamentarisches Begleitgremium COVID-19-Pandemie” and presented our findings on the rise of social inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Here´s the link to rewatch the full 105 minutes event. You can find our whole statement here. And finally, here´s my Twitter summary thread on the most important findings (in German):

in Böckler IMPULS 06/21: https://www.boeckler.de/de/boeckler-impuls-besser-dran-mit-betriebsrat-31892.htm

A new analysis of the strain perceived by the working population in Germany shows very high values for the recent survey wave in January: 40% of the respondents report “high” or “extreme” strain. Even higher is the perceived strain for parents (49%) and especially mothers (54%). Moreover, the study shows how inequal the emotional strain is distributed, as low-income respondents report much higher strain.

The study and the press release can be downloaded here (only German).

A thread with figures and most results summarized can be found here (only German):

Very excited and proud that five years after I discussed an idea of applying Institutional Anomie Theory to Polish society with Jacek Bielinski at the ISA Forum in Vienna, the paper is now published in the European Journal of Criminology!

In the paper we introduce and test new, valid, and reliable micro-level measures of marketized mentality. This thread offers a more comprehensive summary:

The paper can be found here.

For Hans-Böckler-Foundation´s MITBESTIMMUNG-magazine, I reanalyzed the three waves of the work-force panel regarding the prevalence and development of conspiracy myths and corona skepticism/denialism.

Here´s the article (only in German).

Here´s a longer Thread on more results (only in German):

We have analyzed the latest data of the Hans-Böckler-Foundation workforce panel-wave and published some first findings (see press release).

Main results in short:

• worries about health increase in the course of rising COVID-19 cases lately
• worries about eroding social cohesion further increase to very high levels (90%!)
• decrease in agreement to conspiracy myths – though still on a high level.
• lower satisfaction with crisis management of Germany´s Federal administration – especially among respondents with lower income
• Now 40% report loss of income in the course of the pandemic. As in the previous waves, the share is again higher among respondents with lower income.

Here is my German Twitter Thread and my English Tweet on it. Here are first media reports: Sueddeutsche Zeitung, n-tv, and deutschlandfunk.