Conference Agenda

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought attention to a situation where medical resources were overwhelmed by demand, leading to difficult decisions for doctors regarding their allocation. This has sparked a social debate about the principles that should guide patient prioritisation, known as medical triage. There is limited knowledge about public attitudes towards triage decisions. The paper examines the legitimacy of medical triage and how values impact individuals' judgments. Additionally, it compares attitudes towards medical triage, a relatively new topic, with attitudes towards moral issues surrounding birth and death that have been extensively debated in public opinion and research since the 1980s, such as abortion, euthanasia, and assisted reproduction.

Theories of moral attitudes consider that individuals balance the right of autonomous individual choice against the potential harm to other individuals. From a theoretical perspective, triage differs from such moral questions because it does not refer to the choice of the individual concerned by the decision but to the decision of the physician(s) prioritising one patient over another. We argue that this difference will also affect the models explaining attitudes towards triage. Consistent with previous research, we anticipate that values related to the importance of equality (Universalism) and the welfare of others (Benevolence) will restrict the acceptance of medical triage. Conversely, values related to the acceptance of inequality (Achievement) and dominance (Power) are likely to be positively associated with the perceived legitimacy of triage decisions.

The EVS MORALBOUNDS module in wave 2 of ESS CRONOS-2 panel comprises a series of questions concerning moral issues surrounding decisions related to birth and death: Abortion, In-vitro fertilization, Surrogacy, and Euthanasia. For the first time in a cross-national survey, these topics are surveyed together with and can be compared to attitudes regarding how physicians might make triage decisions. The moral attitudes are predicted using the basic human values from the ESS core module and a small set of religious and demographic variables.

A comparative descriptive analysis reveals that triage attitudes exhibit minimal cross-national variance across the 12 countries surveyed. In general, individuals tend to accept the prioritisation of younger people and smokers, although acceptance is slightly higher for age-based prioritisation. Public opinion does not express enthusiasm for medical triage, although it does not object to it either. The distribution of attitudes is similar to that of surrogacy and abortion, which remain more contested than euthanasia or IVF.

Preliminary multivariate analyses indicate that human values have a limited contribution to explaining triage attitudes. Specifically, an emphasis on Universalism and Benevolence is not associated with less acceptance of triage, contradicting prior knowledge about other moral questions. Both values are associated with less acceptance of IVF and abortion, and Universalism is also associated with euthanasia and abortion. We do not observe any effects of personal religiosity that are otherwise consistently associated with more conservative moral views. The most significant predictor of attitudes towards triage is education.

The study's findings indicate that factors shaping attitudes to triage differ from other moral issues surrounding life and birth decisions.

Background: Privacy is an integral part of individuals’ lives and democratic societies. On an individual level, privacy promotes well-being, dignity and autonomy, while on a societal level it enables freedom of expression and association. However, digital technologies have been eroding people’s privacy, not only by turning private information into a valuable commodity, but also by the unprecedented pace at which information can be transmitted around the world. But not all population groups face the same risk of online privacy violations. Past literature suggests that there are differences in privacy protection behaviour, online privacy literacy and privacy concerns according to social groups such as age, gender, education and income groups. In this study, we investigate how social inequalities shape the privacy practises of internet users in Slovenia, an EU country with average performance in terms of digital inclusion, based on the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI).

Method: The data were collected as part of the country-specific Wave 6 of the CRONOS2 panel in Slovenia. The questionnaire asked about respondents’ internet experience, their privacy protection behaviour, privacy concerns, and online privacy literacy. All questions were taken from past literature. Demographic data came from the initial ESS survey. To examine differences in online privacy practises among social groups, data from 554 respondents was analysed by means of t-tests and ANOVAs. In addition, multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to examine the predictors of privacy protection behaviours.

Results: The results revealed important differences between the groups, particularly in relation to gender. Females had greater privacy concerns but lower online privacy literacy. Compared to males, they protected their online privacy more often from other internet users, but less often from companies and institutions. There were minimal or no differences in privacy concerns between age, education and income groups. However, older, less educated and low-income groups of internet users generally demonstrated lower online privacy literacy and engaged in privacy protection behaviours less often. The regression analysis examining the determinants of privacy protection behaviour revealed that, alongside gender, age and the number of social media used, the most important predictors of privacy protection were privacy concerns and online privacy literacy.

Conclusion: This study highlights that in a country facing digital inclusion challenges, social inequalities are associated with internet users’ privacy practises. As disadvantaged groups are less likely to protect their online privacy, this might expose them to more privacy risks and violations. Interventions targeted at improving online privacy literacy among such groups can help address the current situation.

The proposed presentation will demonstrate the challenges and solutions of recruiting online web-panel through probability-based face-to-face and push-to-web surveys in Hungary and compare the composition of the panels using two different survey modes for recruitment. To tackle low recruitment rates in the original design of CROss-National Online Survey 2 (CRONOS-2), uniquely in Hungary, the web-panel has been recruited through two sequential methods: (1) through the interviewer-assisted face-to-face survey during ESS Round 10 (May-Oct 2021) and (2) through a probability-based mixed-mode self-completion survey during Sept-Oct, 2022 (Push-to-Web design). The approximately 60 min questionnaire was identical in the two surveys including the recruitment questions to the panel at the end of the questionnaire. The sampling strategies were identical in the two surveys, as well; both applied probability-based, stratified sampling using address registry. While the response rate to the face-to-face survey was somewhat higher (appr. 39,4%) than to the PtW self-completion survey (36,4%), the panel recruitment through a self-completion questionnaire resulted in a significantly higher share of recruited panel members (56,7%) compared to the recruitment through the interviewer-assisted survey (23,7%). In our presentation we will first present the design of the two surveys, then explain the challenges of setting up the panel and finally compare the composition of the panel as recruited by the two surveys (interviewer-assisted ESS R10 and Push-to-Web self-completion survey). Finally, we will compare some of the most frequently used variables on weighted data for four surveys: R10 (interviewer assisted), PtW (self-completion), and the two sub-panels recruited through the two surveys. We will focus on questions used most frequently by the ESS community, such as interest in politics, political preferences, trust, subjective health, and happiness. Our research offers important insight into how recruitment of members to a web-panel through probability sample surveys is impacted by the mode of the survey. However, the results can not automatically be extended to other countries since we suspect an important impact of the socio-political context and levels of trust on the willingness to participate in various survey modes.

Changing trends in family and personal life indicate a diversification of reproductive decisions and parental projects, alongside the legal recognition of LGBT+ family rights and more democratic access to medically assisted procreation. These legal and political changes contribute to an expanded span of reproductive trajectories and increased possibilities for parenthood. In Portugal, both the adoption by same-sex couples and access to medically assisted procreation through donor conception, regardless of sexual orientation and marital status, have been legally recognized since 2016 (surrogacy is still under discussion). Despite these political and legal advances, little is known about the public opinion of Portuguese society regarding this diversification of parental pathways in a systematic manner. Also, limited information is available on the main structural, family, and attitudinal factors influencing favorable or unfavorable attitudes toward the recognition of gay and lesbian parental rights and the use of medically assisted procreation technologies. We aim to examine the role of more general attitudes towards family and gender, as well as the influence of the ideal of heteronormativity and biological primacy on attitudes towards various parental pathways, including same-sex adoption, medically assisted technologies (such as in vitro fertilization, egg, sperm or embryo conception), and surrogacy. We will utilize data from The CROss-National Online Survey 2 (CRONOS-2), specifically focusing on the Portuguese-specific module on Family, Gender, and Policies in Wave 3, along with data on Family Diversity collected in Wave 4. Our analytical approach will consist of three steps: 1) a descriptive characterization of the overall attitudinal landscape on family and gender; 2) a comparative analysis between attitudes towards heterosexual and biological parenting and attitudes toward more diversified ways of becoming a parent; 3) identification of the role of structural, family, and attitudinal factors that shape attitudes towards diverse parental pathways, such as parenting through same-sex adoption and medically assisted procreation technologies.