Attitudes toward refugees (ATR) have become a pivotal concern in Germany following the substantial refugee influx of 2015. This study examines levels and changes in ATR in the German population between 2017 and 2021 across different sociodemographic groups. In contrast to previous studies investigating similar research questions, our approach captured within-individual changes across three dimensions of ATR-cognitive, affective, and behavioral-a perspective largely missing in existing research. Using the GESIS Panel and latent growth curve modeling, we found that after an initial increase in negative sentiments, attitudes gradually became more positive over time, with the strongest positive shift observed in the cognitive dimension, followed by the affective and behavioral dimensions. Women, West Germans, higher-educated, and politically left-leaning individuals held more positive ATR across all ATR dimensions. These sociodemographic differences remained largely stable without attenuating or intensifying over the 4 years. The uniform change patterns in ATR challenge assumptions that certain groups are more resistant to attitude change or that attitudes have polarized in Germany's post-2015 environment.

Background: Patient dignity is a foundational principle in geriatric care, yet how health regulations conceptualize and promote dignity for elderly patients remains underexplored. Israel offers a particularly instructive case given its universal healthcare system serving a diverse aging population. Objectives: This study examines how Israeli state health regulations promote patient dignity and responsiveness in geriatric hospitals, and analyzes these regulatory provisions through the lens of Schwartz's refined theory of basic human values. Methods: We conducted a qualitative content analysis of 150 regulatory documents issued by Israel's Ministry of Health between 2009 and the present. Coding proceeded inductively using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019), with AI-assisted software supporting coding identification and organization. Themes and sub-themes were subsequently mapped onto Schwartz's value framework through a theory-informed process. Results: Four core dignity-related themes were identified: ethical treatment, patient-centered care, safety and comfort, and end-of-life care. Each theme was systematically mapped onto Schwartz's value dimensions: ethical treatment aligning with conformity and security; patient-centered care with self-direction and benevolence; safety and comfort with security, universalism-concern, and hedonism; and end-of-life care with universalism-concern, and self-direction. Conclusions: Schwartz's value framework offers an analytically productive lens for understanding how organizational regulations encode and enact human values in geriatric care. The findings point to concrete policy implications: regulations should be understood not merely as procedural tools but as value-oriented instruments that shape the moral culture of care organizations. Future research should examine how these regulatory values translate into actual clinical practice.

Antisemitism is a long-standing, yet recently escalating threat to Jews and social cohesion in general. While there are intense public debates on Muslim antisemitism, there is very little systematic research based on large-scale, representative data. We fill this gap by analysing approximately 8,500 respondents included in the German Integrationsbarometer 2020 survey. Our results demonstrate that antisemitism is significantly higher among Muslims compared to Christian or religiously unaffiliated respondents, and among immigrants from Turkey and the Middle East & North Africa compared to other groups. About 35 per cent of Muslims strongly agreed with classical antisemitic statements. Deeper analyses reveal that antisemitism is particularly high among Muslims who are very religious or less educated. On the other hand, antisemitism is much lower among Muslims who are less religious or highly educated. We find only limited support for the impact of the time since migration on the antisemitism levels of Muslims. The findings are robust to various operationalizations of classical antisemitism and modelling choices. We discuss the theoretical as well as political implications of our findings.

Multilevel modelling (MM) is widely utilized in the social sciences, with over 20% of articles in leading sociological journals employing this technique. Despite its prevalence, few studies address whether the variables used in MM are invariant across groups or allow to construct reliable indicators. This study investigates the effects of both measurement noninvariance and random measurement error on MM using Monte Carlo simulations. Our findings reveal significant biases in MM results when random measurement errors are overlooked. Attaining high reliability in the indicators - above 0.94 - can mitigate these biases. While measurement noninvariance introduces bias in MM, its impact is smaller compared to that of the bias caused by unaddressed measurement error. Multilevel structural equation modelling (SEM), which controls for random measurement errors, performs effectively in complete measurement invariance (MI) scenarios. However, the absence of MI can create significant challenges. While multilevel SEM is a powerful analytical tool, it is not immune to the effects of MI assumption violations.

The growing older population in Israel presents unique challenges for the healthcare system, particularly within geriatric hospitals that cater specifically to older patients. As the demand for specialized care increases, it becomes crucial to better understand the communication dynamics within these institutions. This study aims to examine how regulatory frameworks reflect values, specifically the value of communication and responsiveness in geriatric hospital care. Hence, the study seeks to discover how regulations specify communication instructions in geriatric institutions. To achieve this, a thematic analysis was conducted, focusing specifically on communication as a key organizational principle. The research thoroughly examined over 150 regulations pertaining to geriatric treatment in Israel. The findings reveal that formalized rules and regulations significantly specify aspects of communication. The study highlights the alignment of communication strategies with personal values, suggesting that core values can serve as a framework for improving interactions among healthcare providers, patients, and their families. The findings underscore the need for healthcare policies prioritizing communication strategies in geriatric care. By doing so, policymakers can foster better care outcomes and responsiveness.

BACKGROUND: The growing recognition of the importance of family involvement in geriatric healthcare underscores the need to examine how regulatory frameworks, such as health regulations, shape family involvement in hospital care. The study’s objectives are twofold. First, it aims to examine how health regulations shape family involvement in geriatric care. Second, the study highlights areas where policies can be adjusted to foster greater family participation. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative analysis of over 150 regulations related to geriatric care in Israel, focusing on how these regulations facilitate family participation as an organizational goal that could either support or hinder family involvement in the care process. RESULTS: Our findings reveal that various government documents largely promote and encourage family involvement to foster a more responsive and effective healthcare system. We identified several key aspects of family participation in geriatric treatment, including information sharing and communication, care planning and decision-making, advocacy, and emotional and social support. This study makes two primary contributions. First, it provides a detailed examination of how regulations strengthen the role of families in the geriatric healthcare environment, thereby reducing organizational overload and enhancing patients’ well-being. Second, it highlights the need for legal reform to better incorporate and integrate family involvement in geriatric care, addressing contradictions between real-world practices and regulatory frameworks to meet the evolving needs of the older population. CONCLUSIONS: The study offers insights for policymakers and healthcare providers seeking to develop regulatory frameworks that enhance family involvement in geriatric healthcare.

Since its inception, the European Social Survey (ESS) has recognized the importance of studying human values because of their potential to contribute to our understanding of individuals and societies. All ESS rounds have included a shortened 21-item version of the Portrait Value Questionnaire (PVQ21) for measuring the 10 values of Schwartz's original theory and the underlying 4 higher-order dimensions. This scale has seen widespread use in value studies, not limited to those based on the ESS. In 2012, Schwartz and colleagues proposed a refinement of the theory that identified 19 narrower values derived from the original 10. This theory has been cited in thousands of studies. The present research explores whether single items of the PVQ21 can be used to properly measure the 19 values of Schwartz's refined theory. A sample of 645 Italian adults (56.1% females, Mage=34.66) completed the PVQ21 and the PVQ-RR, an instrument developed to measure the refined values. We examined the correspondence between each PVQ21 item and the refined values on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Results suggested that the PVQ21 allows researchers to effectively capture most refined values. We discuss findings regarding their implications, possibilities, and limitations for measuring the refined values in the ESS.

We test the theory that personality incoherence may instigate personality change in the context of personal values. Values' near-universal organization makes value incoherence assessment straightforward. The study included 13 longitudinal samples from seven cultures (Australia, Israel Palestinian citizens, Israel Jewish majority, Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Switzerland), total N = 7,126, and T1 M age ranging between 6 and 18. Each participant reported values between two- and six-times. Using unfolding analysis, we calculated the fit of the internal value structure of each participant at the first time point to the value structure in their sample (normative structure) and to the theoretical structure of values. We estimated value change using Growth Curve Modeling (when at least three measurement times were available) and the difference between T1 and T2 in each sample. We correlated value incoherence with value change and estimated the effect across samples using a meta-analysis. Incoherence with the structure of values predicted greater value change. The associations were stronger when participant's value structures were compared to the normative value structure at T1 than when they were compared to the theoretical structure. A meta-regression analysis indicated that effects were not moderated by age. We discuss possible underlying processes and implications for personality development.

Previous explanations regarding transnational solidarity in the European Union (EU) have mainly focussed on factors including left-right self-placement, support for European integration and European identity. We expand this model by considering deeper psychological determinants of transnational solidarity: values, operationalised as Schwartz's basic human values of universalism and security. We expect them to exert (1) direct effects on transnational solidarity - measured as support for pan-European social benefits - and (2) indirect effects via the three aforementioned factors. We test and find evidence to support our theoretical framework using multigroup structural equation modelling and data from the European Social Survey. We further show that the effect size of the value of universalism on preferences for an EU social benefit scheme in each country is positively moderated by that country's net contribution to the EU budget, highlighting the interaction between material interests and psychological value motivations.

The aim of our study was twofold: (1) to explore the role of value preferences on peer relations in school classes (selection effect) and (2) to explore the role of peers' values on adolescents' values (influence or socialization effect) in three types of networks (friendship, advice, and trust). To answer these questions, we used a longitudinal social network approach in a study of N = 903 adolescents (57% girls) from 34 secondary school classes in Poland. Pupils began participating in the study when they joined their secondary school and were followed over two and a half years. Panel data were collected at six measurement time points during this period. Values were conceptualized according to the values theory proposed by Schwartz and measured by the Portrait Value Questionnaire. The collection of network data followed a roster design. Pupils were asked to evaluate the strength of their friendships, as well as the frequency with which they approached peers to ask for advice about school or homework or to talk about things that are important to them in the last 2 weeks. We found empirical support for both selection and socialization effects, especially for protection values (Conservation and Self-enhancement). The selection effect was most evident in advice and trust networks and the socialization effect was particularly prevalent in friendship and trust networks.

Individual religiosity measures are used by researchers to describe and compare individuals and societies. However, the cross-cultural comparability of the measures has often been questioned but rarely empirically tested. In the current study, we examined the cross-national measurement invariance properties of generalized individual religiosity in the sixth wave of the World Values Survey. For the analysis, we used multiple group confirmatory factor analysis and alignment. Our results demonstrated that a theoretically driven measurement model was not invariant across all countries. We suggested four unidimensional measurement models and four overlapping groups of countries in which these measurement models demonstrated approximate invariance. The indicators that covered praying practices, importance of religion, and confidence in its institutions were more cross-nationally invariant than other indicators.

Schwartz's theory of basic human values is the dominant framework for assessing values. One of its strengths is that it allows for different levels of analysis. The 10 basic values can be reliably assigned to four higher-order dimensions: Openness to Change, Conservation, Self-Transcendence, and Self-Enhancement. In this paper, we examined the psychometric properties of the Higher-Order-Value Scale-17 (HOVS17), an inventory that economically assesses these higher-order values. We analyzed data from the GESIS Panel, an ongoing large-scale probability-based panel study that fields HOVS17 annually since 2013 and for which HOVS17 was originally developed. We found HOVS17 to have satisfactory psychometric properties. The 17 items were located in the two-dimensional multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) space as hypothesized. All four subscales were unidimensional, showed good fit when modeled as reflective latent variables, and had acceptable reliabilities as well as one-year test-retest stabilities (.65 to .69). The subscales correlated in theoretically plausible ways with a wide range of correlates and criteria, such as personality traits and well-being. This demonstrates that HOVS17 provides a sound basis for studying the development, precursors, and consequences of the higher-order values in the GESIS Panel and in future surveys that adopt HOVS17. We also discuss suggestions for further improvements of the inventory.

Due to the explosive growth of social media technology worldwide, consumers are exposed to abundant stimuli across cultures that affect their internalization of societal ideal of beauty and the formation of self-concept. In response to this, the beauty industry is facing challenges to personalize their offerings to an array of diverse consumers who are seeking brands that resonate with their values and foster a true emotional bond. Consumers' personal value with respect to beauty is an important antecedent of the internalization of societal ideal of beauty, which eventually control their appearance-conscious emotions and behaviors, thereby play an important role for understanding the psychological mechanisms that underlie diverse beautification procedures. However, a systematic scale to measure personal beauty values of consumers across cultures has yet to be established. In this article, we attempt to bridge this gap by developing, measuring, and validating a new Personal Beauty Values Scale through a series of studies using independent samples from the United States (n = 348, n = 1039), the United Kingdom (n = 401, n = 396), Japan (n = 1011), and Denmark (n = 981). Subsequently, we investigate influences of personal beauty values on one of the critical beautification procedures invasive to the human body, that is, cosmetic surgery. Specifically, the nomological validation using the U.S. sample (n = 1039) demonstrated that the distinct characteristics of the five personal beauty values dimensions differently affected appearance-conscious emotions such as shame and hubristic pride, thereby unveiling the psychological mechanism behind consideration of cosmetic surgery.

Both the basic human values approach and the economic preference approach have been developed and applied to represent fundamental drivers of human behavior in various domains by measuring people's underlying preferences and motivations. Both of them have been used, however, in isolation from each other, the former primarily in social psychology studies and the latter mainly in economic studies. But how similar are they? Finding that they differ may suggest that combining them to explain human behavior might be beneficial. To the best of our knowledge, only a few studies have attempted to explore and empirically examine the theoretical and empirical link between variables in both approaches. The current study tries to fill this gap by examining relations between basic human values and major economic preferences. We examine the associations between the values of self-transcendence, self-enhancement, openness to change and conservation, and the economic preferences of risk aversion (or seeking), altruism, trust, and positive and negative reciprocity. We propose mechanisms as to how they may be associated with one another. For example, we expect an association between conservation and risk aversion as both are motivated by attributing importance to stability and the status quo, or between self-transcendence and altruism, as both are motivated by concern for others. For the empirical analysis we employed convenience samples collected in Poland and Germany. Results in both samples support our expectations: several values and economic preferences are linked in theoretically predictable ways, but only to a weak or moderate extent. We conclude that they are not mutually exclusive but may rather be complementary, and therefore likely both relevant for investigations into explaining behavior.

Religion permeates many aspects of individuals' lives and interplays with a multitude of other theoretical constructs of interest for researchers. The cross-national European Social Survey (ESS) includes the Religious Involvement scale for the comparative study of religiosity. How-ever, the cross-national comparability of this scale has been investigated only occasionally. The current study examined the measurement invariance of the Religious Involvement scale across ESS countries in nine survey rounds (2002-2018). Our findings demonstrated that exact mea-surement invariance across all countries was not supported by the data, however approximate invariance could be established using the alignment procedure. The frequency of praying item was more invariant than the frequency of religious attendance and self-assessed religiosity in-dicators. Finally, we listed the comparable estimates of a mean country religious involvement. We conclude that the Religious Involvement scale in the ESS can be confidently used for the comparative study of religious involvement relying on the means estimated with the alignment method.

Good measurement instruments have to meet certain necessary conditions, especially if they are to be used in cross-cultural research. In this study, we examine whether the German and Japanese translations of Shalom Schwartz's PVQ-57 fulfill two of these conditions. The survey measures 19 human values by 57 indicators. First, we examine whether these human values are reliably measured in a student survey which was carried out in autumn/winter 2018 at German and Japanese universities. Second, we investigate whether the instruments allow the comparison of latent value means across the German and Japanese student samples. Such a comparison is meaningful only if scalar equivalence, a high form of measurement equivalence, is reached. Results suggest that at least partial scalar invariance can be established across the samples. We discuss the findings in the broader perspective of value research and outline topics for further investigation.

In factorial survey designs, respondents evaluate multiple short descriptions of social objects (vignettes) that experimentally vary different levels of attributes of interest. Analytical methods (including individual-level regression analysis and multilevel models) estimate the weights (or utilities) assigned to the levels of the different attributes by participants to arrive at an overall response to the vignettes. In the current paper, we explain how data from factorial surveys can be analyzed in a structural equation modeling framework using an approach called structural equation modeling for within-subject experiments. We review the use of factorial surveys in social science research, discuss typically used methods to analyze factorial survey data, introduce the structural equation modeling for within-subject experiments approach, and present an empirical illustration of the proposed method. We conclude by describing several extensions, providing some practical recommendations, and discussing potential limitations.

This review summarizes the current state of the art of statistical and (survey) methodological research on measurement (non)invariance, which is considered a core challenge for the comparative social sciences. After outlining the historical roots, conceptual details, and standard procedures for measurement invariance testing, the paper focuses in particular on the statistical developments that have been achieved in the last 10 years. These include Bayesian approximate measurement invariance, the alignment method, measurement invariance testing within the multilevel modeling framework, mixture multigroup factor analysis, the measurement invariance explorer, and the response shift-true change decomposition approach. Furthermore, the contribution of survey methodological research to the construction of invariant measurement instruments is explicitly addressed and highlighted, including the issues of design decisions, pretesting, scale adoption, and translation. The paper ends with an outlook on future research perspectives.