Browsing by Author "Ziller, Conrad"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Open Access
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.
Open Access
Editorial - contemporary threats, surveillance, and the balancing of security and liberty
(2023) Trüdinger, Eva-Maria; Ziller, Conrad; Noll, Jolanda van der
Open Access
Setting limits to tolerance : an experimental investigation of individual reactions to extremism and violence
(2023) Trüdinger, Eva-Maria; Ziller, Conrad
Tolerating others' opinions, even if disliked, is a cornerstone of liberal democracy. At the same time, there are limits to political tolerance as tolerating extremists and groups who use violence would threaten the foundations of tolerance itself. We study people's willingness to set limits to tolerance in case of violence and extremism (scope of tolerance) - under different conditions regarding ideological groups (left-wing, right-wing, religious) and offline/online contexts of free speech. Using data from a large-scale survey experiment conducted in Germany, we show that citizens clearly set limits to tolerance of different groups, especially if the latter have violent intentions, and that people tend to be more tolerant online than offline. Moreover, we find that citizens are more tolerant toward groups that are closer to their own ideological stance. However, violence disrupts such an ideological bias as respondents across the ideological spectrum exhibit low levels of tolerance toward violent groups - irrespectively of their political stance. Our findings highlight the importance of situational factors as foundations of judgments on the limits to tolerance.