On the launch of the Lower Saxony Panel: Questions for Prof. Dr. Mario Mechtel

Dear Mr Mechtel, the Lower Saxony Panel was launched in August. In a nutshell, what is the Lower Saxony Panel and what is the basic idea behind it?

The Lower Saxony Panel is a database of volunteers who agree to participate in scientific studies. On the one hand, we conduct survey studies in which participants are asked about their opinions and assessments on specific topics. On the other hand, we also invite participants to take part in behavioural economics decision-making experiments. The aim is to survey the same people repeatedly in order to reliably measure changes in attitudes and behaviour over time.

Who is behind the Lower Saxony Panel?

The Lower Saxony Panel is part of the ‘Behavioural Economics and Social Transformation’ research area, a collaboration between seven universities in Lower Saxony (Clausthal, Göttingen, Hanover, Lüneburg, Oldenburg, Osnabrück and Vechta) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology. The research area is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture.

What is the research goal and what questions are the focus?

We are investigating how current transformation processes – such as climate change, migration, digitalisation and demographic change – influence people's behaviour. We are particularly interested in how attitudes and decisions change over time and after certain events – and how these effects differ along urban-rural divides, income, gender, social background and political attitudes. Lower Saxony is a large state that is very heterogeneous. On the one hand, this heterogeneity offers exciting opportunities for basic university research because we can investigate how the preferences, attitudes and decisions of different population groups differ. On the other hand, from a political perspective, it is extremely exciting and relevant in these times to map all these heterogeneities in order to derive policy recommendations and contribute to improving political decisions.

Who can participate – and what can participants expect?

All adults residing in Lower Saxony are eligible to participate. Registration is free, voluntary and can be revoked at any time. Participants receive regular invitations to studies and can then decide for themselves which ones to participate in. For survey studies, they receive a flat-rate remuneration based on the length of the study. In behavioural economics decision experiments, the remuneration is variable and depends on the decisions made by the participants.

How many people have participated so far and how much effort does it take to organise the Lower Saxony Panel?

At the end of July, we sent letters to randomly selected households in Lower Saxony inviting them to participate in the Lower Saxony Panel. The response has been overwhelming. According to the latest figures, we now have around 5,000 volunteers, of whom almost 4,000 took part in our first study within just a few days. The Lower Saxony Panel is backed by a highly committed team that provides us researchers with excellent conditions for our research work.

What are the next steps?

The first study based on the initial survey will be published soon, and we are very much looking forward to enriching the social and political debates in Lower Saxony with the results. Further studies will start in the near future, and we are confident that the Lower Saxony Panel will establish itself as a permanent fixture in the German research landscape in the medium term.

Further information is available at www.niedersachsenpanel.de. You can also register as a participant there. Further information on the activities of the Science Area is available at www.wissenschaftsraum-verhalten.de.