Reincarnation Revisited: Question format and the distribution of belief in reincarnation in survey research

Comparing frequency of belief in reincarnation from different international survey projects (RAMP, EVS, ISSP) reveals differences of about 15 to 20 percent depending on the specific question format. If single binary questions are used, then belief in reincarnation is more often reported than if a forced-choice question is used which offers respondents alternatives to belief in reincarnation (e.g. resurrection). One possible explanation for this result is that respondents confuse reincarnation and resurrection if a binary item is used. If this is true, then empirical studies on religious individualization would be flawed because they use belief in reincarnation as an indicator for holistic beliefs such as New Age spirituality, post-Christian spirituality and subjective life spirituality. Using a two stage question on beliefs about the afterlife that combines a binary rating procedure (1. stage) with a reduced forced-choice design (2. stage) allows analysis of whether respondents systematically confuse reincarnation and resurrection. Moreover, analysing associations with other variables on religious beliefs allows testing if consistent patterns of belief emerge. The data provide little evidence that respondents confuse resurrection and reincarnation. Rather, they reveal a high level of uncertainty about belief in the afterlife. To conclude, the paper suggests some recommendations on how belief in reincarnation should be used as an indicator for holistic beliefs

More benefit or harm? Moral contextualism shapes public attitudes towards social egg freezing

Medical treatments at the beginning and end of human life are highly contested in public discourse. Our study reveals factors shaping the acceptance of social egg freezing (or oocyte cryopreservation) as an assisted reproduction technology (ART) in the general public. Based on the theory of moral contextualism and the literature on medical ethics, we deduce potential factors influencing attitudes toward cryopreservation (for example, the number of oocytes used or the age up to which women plan to use the oocytes). The influence of these factors on individual attitudes is modeled using a factorial design embedded into a web survey. The results show that factors associated with potential harm to the children decrease acceptance of cryopreservation, whereas factors associated with potential harm to the women increase acceptance. The strongest effect has the age at which women plan to use the preserved oocytes

Religion, spirituality, and susceptibility to conspiracy theories: examining the role of analytic thinking and post-critical beliefs

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the political and scholarly attention on conspiracy theories. Among other predictors, religious and spiritual influences on conspiracy beliefs have been widely discussed in the literature. We suggest analyzing the relationship between religion and spirituality on the one hand and conspiracy beliefs on the other hand from the perspective of religious information processing. Based on the Post-Critical Beliefs Scale (PCBS), we argue that literal interpretations of religious information are positively associated with conspiracy beliefs. Furthermore, we assume that individual differences in analytic cognitive style account for the relationship between religious attitudes, spirituality, and conspiracism. Using a quota sample of German adults, we find that literal interpretations of religious content positively correlate with conspiracy beliefs for the literal affirmation of transcendence (e.g., orthodoxy) and the literal disaffirmation of transcendence (e.g., atheism). These findings suggest that religious information processing is related to conspiracy beliefs for religious and nonreligious individuals. Moreover, our results show a stable association between holistic spirituality and conspiracy beliefs. The relationships between different types of religious attitudes, spirituality, and conspiracy beliefs hold, even after accounting for analytic (versus intuitive) thinking. The implications for the study of religious attitudes and conspiracy beliefs are discussed.Die COVID-19-Pandemie hat die politische und wissenschaftliche Aufmerksamkeit für Verschwörungserzählungen stark erhöht. Neben anderen Prädiktoren sind religiöse und spirituelle Einflüsse auf Verschwörungsüberzeugungen in der Literatur ausführlich diskutiert worden. In ihrer aktuellen Studie schlagen die Autoren vor, die Beziehung zwischen Religion und Spiritualität einerseits und Verschwörungsüberzeugungen andererseits aus der Perspektive der religiösen Informationsverarbeitung zu analysieren. Basierend auf der Post-Critical Beliefs Scale (PCBS) argumentieren sie, dass wörtliche Interpretationen religiöser Informationen positiv mit Verschwörungsüberzeugungen zusammenhängen. Darüber hinaus untersuchen sie inwiefern individuelle Unterschiede in analytischen Fähigkeiten für die Beziehung zwischen religiösen Einstellungen, Spiritualität und Verschwörungsglauben verantwortlich sind. Anhand einer Quotenstichprobe deutscher Erwachsener finden sie, dass wörtliche Interpretationen religiöser Inhalte positiv mit Verschwörungsüberzeugungen korrelieren. Das gilt sowohl für eine wörtliche Auslegung im pro-religiösen Sinn (z.B. Orthodoxie) als auch für eine wörtliche Auslegung bei einer ablehnenden Haltung zur Religion (z.B. Atheismus). Diese Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass die Verarbeitung religiöser Informationen bei religiösen und nicht-religiösen Personen mit Verschwörungsüberzeugungen zusammenhängt. Darüber hinaus zeigen die Ergebnisse einen robusten Zusammenhang zwischen ganzheitlicher Spiritualität und Verschwörungsüberzeugungen. Die Beziehungen zwischen verschiedenen Arten religiöser Einstellungen, Spiritualität und Verschwörungsüberzeugungen bleiben auch dann bestehen, wenn analytisches Denken (im Gegensatz zu intuitivem Denken) berücksichtigt wird. Die Implikationen für die Erforschung religiöser Einstellungen und Verschwörungsüberzeugungen werden diskutiert

A Re‑evaluation of Online Pornography Use in Germany: A Combination of Web Tracking and Survey Data Analysis

Several researchers have questioned the reliability of pornography research's findings. Following a recent call to use more reliable data sources, we conducted two analyses to investigate patterns and predictors of online pornography use (OPU). Our analyses were based on data from a large-scale German online web tracking panel (N = 3018) gathered from June 2018 to June 2019. The study we present here has two parts: In the first part, we looked at group differences (gender and age) in tracked OPU. Overall, this part's results confirm questionnaire-based research findings regarding sex and age differences. In the second part of our study, we combined the web tracking data with data from an online survey which was answered by a subset of the tracking participants (n = 1315) to assess the relevance of various predictors of OPU that have been identified in previous research. Again, our results mostly echoed previous findings based on self-reports. Online pornography was used more by males and younger individuals, while relationship status, sexist attitudes, and social dominance orientation were not associated with OPU. However, we did find differences in OPU between members of different religious communities. Our study confirms some critical findings on OPU from previous questionnaire-based research while extending existing research by providing a more fine-grained analysis of usage patterns based on web tracking data

Forschungsdatenzentrum ALLBUS: Jahresbericht 2014; Berichtszeitraum 01.01.2014-31.12.2014

Das Forschungsdatenzentrum ALLBUS (Allgemeine Bevölkerungsumfrage der Sozialwissenschaften) gibt allen wissenschaftlich interessierten Personen geregelten und nutzerfreundlichen Zugang zu einem der zentralen Surveyprogramme Deutschlands. Dieser Jahresbericht stellt die Arbeiten des bei GESIS angesiedelten Forschungsdatenzentrums ALLBUS (FDZ ALLBUS) aus dem Jahr 2014 dar. Angebunden an bereits bestehende Dienstleistungsangebote und Forschungsaktivitäten von GESIS, ist das Forschungsdatenzentrum seit 2011 Bestandteil der Forschungsdateninfrastruktur des Rats für Sozial- und WirtschaftsDaten (RatSWD). Zu den Aufgaben des Forschungsdatenzentrums ALLBUS gehören die Erhebung, Aufbereitung und ausführliche Dokumentation von Primärdaten im Sinne ihrer langfristigen Nutzbarkeit in Forschung und Lehre, wissenschaftliche Mehrwertdienste, Wissensvermittlung und Forschung. Im Jahr 2014 wurden drei neue Einzelstudien aufbereitet und veröffentlicht

White Paper on implementing the FAIR principles for data in the social, behavioural, and economic sciences

The FAIR principles formulate guidelines for the sustainable reusability of research data. FAIR stands for Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability of data and metadata. While there is a growing body of general implementation guidelines, so far there is a lack of specific recommendations on how to apply the FAIR principles to the specific needs of social, behavioural and economic science data. These disciplines work with highly diverse data types that often contain confidential information on individuals, companies, or institutions. These features pose some challenges to the useful implementation of the FAIR principles - especially regarding the machine-actionability of data and metadata that is at the core of the FAIR principles. This White Paper defines the FAIR principles for the social, behavioural and economic sciences. For each of the 15 FAIR (sub)principles, the paper proposes minimum requirements and provides a vision for a full-implementation of the FAIR principles by repositories and data centres. The paper was authored by members of the Economic and Social Sciences goINg FAIR Implementation Network (EcoSoc-IN) and addresses research data centres and other stakeholders who strive for a FAIR research data infrastructure in the disciplines of KonsortSWD

KonsortSWD: Vom Netzwerk zur integrierten Dateninfrastruktur der Gesellschaftsforschung

SWD - Strengthen, Widen, Deepen: so versteht das Konsortium für die Sozial-, Bildungs-, Verhaltens- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften seine Aufgabe innerhalb der Nationalen Forschungsdateninfrastruktur: Die bestehende Infrastruktur für Forschungsdatenmanagement auszubauen und zu integrieren. Um gesellschaftlich relevante, insbesondere sensible Daten für die Forschung verfügbar zu machen, baut KonsortSWD auf bewährten, wissenschaftsnahen Strukturen auf. Wir integrieren die bestehenden Elemente stärker und erschließen systematisch neue Daten, z.B. qualitative Forschungsdaten. Eine zentrale Rolle spielt dabei der Rat für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsdaten, der als gewähltes Gremium die Anliegen der Fachcommunities artikuliert und die zielgerichtete Weiterentwicklung der Infrastruktur forciert