Conference Agenda

Survey research in Europe has been recently moving away from face to face towards self-completion modes of data collection, namely online panels. As these rely on less controlled environments during data collection, concerns about data quality become a priority even with previously validated indicators. In parallel, as new techniques to dictate life and death arise or gain popularity, moral bounds regarding euthanasia, suicide, abortion and artificial insemination/vitro fertilization fuel heated debates, namely in what concerns public policy decisions. Besides, as moral issues are among the most personal themes with strong links to one’s ethical orientation, they stand as particularly sensitive items to social desirability. It is then evermore important to guarantee that these attitudes are being properly measured and to investigate how differences in mode collection may affect their measurement. With this in mind, this study focuses on the comparison between ESS-CRONOS (Online Panel) and EVS (Face to Face) studies to verify to what extent, if any, collection mode impacts the way people answer life and death judgment items. The analysis will be made within countries and between modes to assess the impact of mode in each country; in the case of differences, we will look for the factors associated to that effect and to the interactions with individual characteristics such as sex, gender, level of education, political orientation, locus of control, religiosity, and familism. Our results will contribute to the discussion on survey practices as we move forward a mixed mode practice and to contribute to the study of attitudes towards moral bounds related to life and death in Europe.

Financial differences may create a divide between citizens, leading to perceptions of unfairness and dissatisfaction. One potential way in which people may feel financially disadvantaged on an individual level is if they perceive to be ostracized (i.e., feeling ignored and excluded, Williams, 2009) because they are financially less well off than others. Feeling ostracized financially may have negative consequences for individuals, such as, for instance, fostering financial anxiety, depression, and envy. As a society-level consequence, individuals may experience lower satisfaction with the present state of the economy at large which could then for instance, also foster dissatisfaction with the government, lower willingness to work, and create less support for policies aimed at solidarity within society.

Using data from the European Social Survey Round 10 as well as CRONOS wave 5, we compute Bayesian multilevel models to explore whether stronger feelings of financial ostracism predict lower satisfaction with the present state of the economy, while controlling for household income, age, gender, and political orientation. All continuous predictors were standardized prior to analysis.

We find that stronger feelings of financial ostracism are associated with lower satisfaction with the present state of the economy, β = -0.16, 95% Credibility Interval (CI) [-0.22, -0.10]. Regarding the control variables, we observe that older individuals (β = 0.07, 95% CI [0.01, 0.13]), those with higher household income (β = 0.29, 95% CI [0.23, 0.34]), males (compared to females, β = -0.21, 95% CI [-0.32, -0.10]), and politically more right-wing oriented individuals (β = 0.15, 95% CI [0.09, 0.20]) are more satisfied with the present state of the economy. In conclusion, compared to other standardized predictors, financial ostracism has medium predictive power in explaining why people are (dis)satisfied with the current state of the economy (i.e., financial ostracism is more predictive than age and political orientation, but less predictive than household income). Model diagnostics showed good convergence (all Rhat = 1.00) and adequate effective sample sizes (Bulk ESS Range = 1,789 - 9905, and Tail ESS Range = 2680 - 6480) speaking in favor of the reliability of our posterior estimates. By controlling for sociodemographic variables, but especially by controlling for household income, we show that not only a maldistribution of financial resources within a society can lead to dissatisfaction with the current state of the economy, but also finance-based feelings of ostracism foster dissatisfaction. Future research will need to grasp the downstream consequences of the association of financial ostracism and dissatisfaction with the current state of economy for individuals as well as for societies.

The paper investigates the intricate dynamics between trust in social surveys and participant engagement in sustaining the long-term commitment of respondents in online survey panels. The ESS online panel survey Cronos2 opens a unique possibility to explore such interplay between specific levels of trust and participant loyalty (retention rate) in cross-national comparison. Panel studies rely on the continuity of participation from the same individuals across multiple survey waves. The three key elements reflect the importance of maintaining a high retention rate. First, a lower retention rate can lead to sample bias, as those who drop out may differ systematically from those who remain, compromising the representativeness of the sample and undermining the generalizability of findings. Second, loyal respondents throughout the study also enabled researchers to analyze trends and changes over time more accurately. Third, a high retention rate fosters a sense of trust between researchers and participants, which ensures honest and accurate responses - as participants who perceive the research process as transparent and trustworthy are more likely to remain engaged and give more credible and quality data. The Cronos2 web panel provided a unique opportunity where, alongside various exciting topics, a set of questions on trust and evaluation of the social surveys were also included. This not only allows a self-assessment of attitudes towards the web panel as such but also provides insight into participants' broader attitudes towards social surveys. In addition to monitoring the effect of essential demographic variables and the effect of general social trust, the analyses demonstrate that trust in surveys also impacts the retention rate of the Cronos2 panel. The analysis will also focus on the interaction between these variables at the country level, including Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Finland, France, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The paper contributes by shedding light on the intricate dynamics of levels of survey trust in the context of web panel survey participation, especially concerning its retention rate. The importance of trust in the survey has been shown in the past (Dillman, 2007), and the Cronos2 data shows it in its own way. By understanding the importance of the elements that influence trust in social surveys, researchers can enhance the design and implementation of panel web surveys, ultimately bolstering participant retention and data quality. The findings have implications for researchers providing insights to optimize the effectiveness and reliability of the web panel survey through the necessity of primarily building trust in the survey, its methods, its aims and its broader societal relevance.

In this paper, we present an empirical analysis of citizens' attitudes toward the recognition of voting rights for migrants in Belgium. While existing research has illuminated the influence of individual-level variables, such as higher education levels, left-wing attitudinal profiles, and dual citizenship, there remains a notable gap in unpacking the underlying causal mechanisms of favorable attitudes toward voting rights recognition for individuals who are either non-residents or non-citizens of the country.

Belgium, with its unique socio-political landscape as a country impacted by intense and heterogeneous migration patterns, serves as an ideal case study for exploring these dynamics. In this paper, we utilize CRONOS2 country-specific wave data for Belgium, coupled with respondents’ background information from the European Social Survey (ESS) Round 10, to further inquire into this topic. The analysis aims to offer a comprehensive overview of the factors associated with openness versus closure in the electoral inclusion of immigrants and emigrants respectively, by accounting for a wide range of socio-economic and political indicators.