Abstract: This paper provides a methodological report on the 2024 East German State Election Study (EGSES24), an online quota-sampled two-wave panel survey conducted in the context of the 2024 state elections in Thuringia, Saxony, and Brandenburg. Designed as a collaborative omnibus project, the study integrates multiple research contributions within a shared survey infrastructure. Data were collected in two waves, one before and one after the elections to capture political attitudes, electoral behavior, and processes of political radicalization. This report outlines the study design, sampling strategy, and fieldwork implementation, including quota fulfillment, panel attrition, and follow-up recruitment. It provides a transparent introduction to the secondary use and interpretation of the data in future research projects.
Abstract: Prior research suggests that the association between social dominance orientation (SDO) and perceived system legitimacy depends on the alignment between individuals’ ideological preferences and the sociopolitical context. We tested this proposition in a two-wave longitudinal study conducted before and after the 2024 East German state elections in Thuringia, Saxony, and Brandenburg in a political context marked by a normative shift in a more antiegalitarian direction. Multilevel analyses revealed that the association between SDO and system legitimacy became significantly more positive following the elections, while overall legitimacy remained unchanged. These findings support an ideological-fit account of system legitimacy, showing that the relationship between ideological preferences and legitimacy judgments depends on their alignment with the surrounding sociopolitical context.
Dispositional mindfulness and gratitude are two individual differences suggested to be linked to attentional processes. The present study aimed to assess the presence of attentional biases associated with these two traits. Sixty-one participants completed an emotional dot-probe task while eye movements were recorded. Each of the 96 trials presented one emotional facial expression (fear, surprise, anger, sadness, disgust, or happiness) paired with a neutral face from the same encoder. Attentional biases were measured using dwell time and initial orienting, in addition to traditional probe response times. Results suggested that individuals high in mindfulness responded faster to probes than those low in mindfulness across all conditions, supporting the view that mindfulness enhances attentional control and cognitive flexibility. Moreover, the interaction between dispositional mindfulness and gratitude significantly predicted initial orienting toward sad stimuli, suggesting a moderation effect. Johnson–Neyman analyses suggested that the time taken to first fixate on sadness stimuli significantly increased as one’s level of mindfulness increased, but only f or individuals with high levels of gratitude. In light of these results, we propose the hypothesis that highly grateful individuals may avoid sad stimuli as a self-preservation strategy and that this tendency becomes more efficient as attentional control improves with mindfulness.
The goal of this paper is to answer the following question: What personal values are most important to people? Building on Dubois and Beauvois’ model of social value, I try to show that the prioritization of personal values depends on the evaluative focus (social desirability versus social utility) one adopts. In two studies ( N total = 2019) asking participants to judge Schwartz’s personal values when adopting the two different evaluative foci, the results showed that self-transcendence (self-enhancement) values were systematically judged as more socially desirable (socially useful) than self-enhancement (self-transcendence) ones, with openness-to-change and conservation falling in between. These results may help resolve inconsistencies observed in the literature between works showing a general preference for self-transcendence values and others pointing to the centrality of self-enhancement values in the functioning of capitalist societies.
