Browsing by Author "Trüdinger, Eva‐Maria"

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    Considered effective? : how policy evaluations and threat perceptions affect support for surveillance in the context of terrorism
    (2022) Trüdinger, Eva‐Maria; Ziller, Conrad
    Surveillance policies aimed at combating terrorism and improving public security can also lead to constraints on civil liberties. In view of this trade‐off between the potential benefits and risks of surveillance, it is particularly important to study how effectiveness considerations shape public support for surveillance. We argue that effectiveness perceptions enhance policy support, but that the manner in which citizens view policy effectiveness depends on their perceptions of threats related to terrorism and to violations of civil liberties. Using data from a factorial survey experiment in Germany, we show that policy effectiveness is the most relevant predictor of citizens' support for different surveillance measures. Moreover, we find evidence that depending on the scope of surveillance, respondents perceiving threats to their liberty rely much less heavily on policy effectiveness as a criterion for evaluating policies, compared to those whose threat perception is low.
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    Responding to policy signals? : an experimental study on information about policy adoption and data retention policy support in Germany
    (2021) Trüdinger, Eva‐Maria; Hildebrandt, Achim; Jäckle, Sebastian; Löser, Jonas
    We analyze whether and how individuals react to information about the adoption of a particular policy, with a focus on the role of conservatism. We conducted an online survey experiment on support for data retention in Germany. A recent law on this issue allowed us to test the effects of two policy signals, information about the adoption of a new law (law signal) and information that this followed a Constitutional Court decision (law and court signal), on separate groups of respondents. Our results show a positive effect of each policy signal on support for data retention. The effect of the law signal was even slightly stronger for individuals with conservative beliefs. Illustrating how lock‐in effects of policies can work, our study contributes to research on attitudinal policy feedback: creating new legislation also means legitimizing the policy position in question and stating that this norm should be accepted.