DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03341.v2
title: Eurobarometer 55.2: Science and Technology, Agriculture, the Euro, and Internet Access, May-June 2001
title: Version 2

description: This round of Eurobarometer surveys, which diverged from the standard topics, focused on respondents' views of science and technology, the Internet, agriculture, and the single European currency, the euro. Respondents were asked to identify the scientific and technological developments in which they were most interested and to rank a number of information sources in their importance as sources of information about science and technology. They were asked if they had visited a museum of science and technology or another type of public museum in the past 12 months and how they would rate a variety of subjects, including such fields as biology, history, and astrology, in terms of whether or not they were scientific. A number of factual questions drawn from various scientific areas were posed, and respondents also gave their opinions on several other topics, including mad cow disease, genetically engineered food, how a drug should be tested for effectiveness, and the role of science and technology in safeguarding the environment and improving life in general. Other items measured respondents' level of trust in science, respondents' views on the role science and technology should have in improving the economy, and the potential benefits or harmful effects of science. Respondents also expressed their views on the role of ethics and responsibility in scientific research, who should be blamed for the mad cow disease problem and how such problems should be prevented. Other items elicited respondents' views on media coverage of scientific and technological topics, their levels of trust in and regard for various professions, the possible reasons for a declining interest in scientific careers among European young people, and the potential effects of that decline. The European Union (EU) was a focus of several questions, including which policy areas respondents believed the EU was active in, which it should be active in, and whether respondents supported research at the European, as opposed to the national, level. They also answered a number of questions designed to elicit their opinions on the current state of European research and how it could be improved. Respondents were asked to give their views on the EU agriculture policy, such as what its purpose was, what its purpose should be, and whether it had been effective in achieving its purpose. Further questions focused on the euro, including respondents' level of interest in the euro, how well informed they believed they were about the euro, and other questions designed to gauge their general knowledge of the euro. Respondents were asked whether they had used the euro before, if not, the reasons why, and their likelihood of using the euro in the future. Other items queried respondents about dual pricing in shops where prices in both the euro and national currency were displayed and the impending changeover from national currencies to the euro. An additional set of questions focused on the Internet. Respondents stated whether they used the Internet, and if so, where. If they did not use the Internet, respondents were asked to state the reasons why, and how they could be encouraged to use it. Respondents also described any computer training they had received, and the sorts of information they would like to find on the Internet. Finally, respondents who used the Internet were asked to identify the ways the Internet had changed their daily lives and, if they did not use the Internet, the ways in which they expected the Internet to change their daily lives. Demographic data on respondents includes nationality, political affiliation, marital status, education, gender, age, occupation, and income.
description: Please review the "Weighting Information" section of the ICPSR codebook for this Eurobarometer study.
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS1: Dataset
description: Eurobarometer Survey Series
description: face-to-face interview 
The original data collection was carried out by the European Opinion Research Group - EEIG on request of the European Commission.
The codebook and setup files for this data collection contain characters with diacritical marks used in many European languages.
The documentation and/or setup files may contain references to Norway, but Norway was not a participant in this wave of Eurobarometer surveys. This collection contains no data for Norway.
The total number of interviews is 16,130. The table in the "Technical Specifications" section of the ICPSR codebook shows the total number of interviews as 16,029.
The fieldwork dates in the data file for East Germany and Greece are not consistent with the fieldwork dates in the "Technical Specifications" section of the ICPSR codebook.
description: Citizens of the EU aged 15 and over residing in the 15 EU member countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Smallest Geographic Unit: country
description: Multistage national probability samples.