Intervention (Hidden)
We conduct an online survey experiment in which we ask participants about their religiosity, their attitudes towards the role of (organized) religion in society and the provision of human and social services by the Catholic Church. We recruit participants from two different sources
• A representative sample via the Lower Saxony Panel (www.niedersachsenpanel.de) with a focus on the Oldenburg region in western Lower Saxony (Northwest Germany)
• A Catholic sample: With support of the local diocese in the Oldenburg region, we also recruit actively among Roman Catholics.
Beside socio-demographic information, the survey includes several established and modified scales on religious commitment, trust in the church at the local and the global level, frequency of interaction with the catholic church, the role of (organized) religion in society and on which activities the catholic church should focus on. More specifically, we include (modified) scales from the German Socio-Economic Panel
- A self generated measure on how much contact the participants have with the catholic church (in private, on the job, via (social) media)
- Generalized trust and relative trust in the Catholic Church. We differentiate this trust measure between general and local institutions
- A German version of the Religious Commitment Scale (Klumparendt & Drenckhan, 2012).
- An augmented scale regarding the use of spare time (Question 10 of the SOEP-Core– 2021: Personenfragebogen , see Infas (2023)). We added praying and attendance of religious ceremonies as additional elements)
- Scales on social justice (Liebig et al. 2016, infas, 2022) and the role of religion in society (Bengtson et al. (2015), )
We have two sets of questions in which we ask participants to rank responses: In the first we ask participants about their preferred provider for specific social and human services (hospitals, schools, old-age homes, kindergarten. educational, marriage and family counseling, pre-abortion counseling). They can choose between a public, a catholic, a nonprofit and a commercial supplier. In the second set, we ask participants which of a selection of its current activities the catholic church should prioritize, and in which order.
We expect significant differences between the two aforementioned samples regarding the role of the church in society and on which activities the church should focus on.
The survey also includes four experimental elements, a donation game and three vignette experiments. The vignette experiments provide variations in hypothetical scenarios in which participants decide
1. As a parent about enrolling their child in a Catholic or a secular nonprofit kindergarten.
2. As a manager of a Catholic kindergarten about accepting a Catholic or non-Catholic (atheist or Lutheran) child for a vacant spot.
3. As a citizen about whether a Catholic or non-religious NGO should run a local taxpayer supported kindergarten.
We hypothesize that Catholic participants, especially those recruited actively via the Catholic Church, have a stronger preference for the Catholic kindergarten, the Catholic child care applicants and kindergartens, even if the alternative choice implies an additional social benefit.
In the donation game at the end of the study, participants can donate their participation fee to one of three main nongovernmental welfare associations in the Oldenburg region, the Caritas (Catholic), Diakonie (Lutheran) or the Red Cross (secular). We expect more frequent and larger donations to the Caritas from the Catholic samle.
Overall, the project provides insights into different perspectives on the trade-offs in religious entities and NGOs that receive public financial support to provide social and human services to their own members and other citizens.