GIP Policy Brief 1/24

The series “How does Germany tick?” regularly publishes short reports that make selected facts, figures and analyses from the German Internet Panel (GIP) available to an interested public, journalists and social decision-makers.
The series aims to make an evidence-based contribution to current, particularly controversial social and political debates.

The most important things in short:

• Social dignity is experienced when one is treated with respect and as an autonomous and equal individual.
• A clear majority in Germany feel that their own contribution to their profession, society and democracy is valuable and useful.
• Two thirds of respondents feel that they are treated with respect by society and in the workplace. However, only just under half also feel respected by politicians.
• The “dignity gap” describes the difference between the dignity expected and the dignity experienced. From the citizens' point of view, the biggest dignity gap and the core of the dignity problem lies in politics – and not in society or the economy.
• Dignity gaps are more pronounced for women, East Germans and people with foreign citizenship, but above all for people without a university degree. By far the biggest dignity gap is felt by voters of the AfD.

GIP Policy Brief 1/24 (in German)