Christian S. Czymara

Goethe University Frankfurt

Mass media has long been discussed as an essential determinant of the threat perceptions leading to anti-immigration attitudes. The field of empirical research on such media effects is still comparatively young, however, and lacks studies examining precise measures of the media environment an individual is likely to be actually exposed to. We emplo...

Based on an innovative design, combining a multi-factorial survey experiment with a longitudinal perspective, we examine changes in the public acceptance of immigrants in Germany from the beginning of the so-called "migration crisis" to after the sexual assaults of New Year's Eve 2015/16. In contrast to previous studies investigating similar resear...

I n 2015, the number of people seeking asylum in Europe skyrocketed. However, asylum applications were mainly concentrated in a few destination countries such as Germany, Austria, or Sweden. After the so-called EU-Turkey deal, asylum rates quickly dropped in subsequent years. I examine how these developments affected public opinion from both a stat...

Exclusionist positions on immigration have become a key component of right-wing ideology in most countries around the world. Combining group threat and news values theory, this study sheds light on the emergence of right-wing discourses on immigration based on one of Germany’s most influential right-wing print outlets. I employ supervised and unsup...

This study investigates the relationship between major Jihadist terror attacks and manifestations of ethno-religious hostility on social media. Analyzing approximately 4.5 million time-stamped Tweets from 1.2 million users across five European countries, the study focuses on content discussing migration and related topics in the weeks before and af...

In the last 20 years, several major terror attacks conducted in the name of political Islam hit Western Europe. We examine the impact of such terror attacks on hostile behaviour on social media from a cross-national perspective. To this end, we draw upon time-stamped, behavioural data from YouTube and focus on the frequency and popularity (‘likes’)...

This chapter advances a theoretical framework to understand within- and between-country variation in the level of stigmatization experienced by immigrant groups and their descendants over time. Since processes of stigmatization and destigmatization may unfold over generations, it is imperative for research to adopt a longer time horizon to identify...

This study investigates the relationship between major Jihadist terror attacks and manifestations of ethno-religious hostility on social media. Analyzing approximately 4.5 million time-stamped Tweets from 1.2 million users across five European countries, the study focuses on content discussing migration and related topics in the weeks before and af...

This study investigates the relationship between major Jihadist terror attacks and manifestations of ethno-religious hostility on social media. Analyzing approximately 4.5 million time-stamped Tweets from 1.2 million users across five European countries, the study focuses on content discussing migration and related topics in the weeks before and af...

While exclusionary national identities are widespread among Europeans, relatively few people vote for the far right in most countries. Thus, an exclusionary identity in many cases does not lead to voting for the most nativist types of parties. We explain this empirical puzzle by showing that these identities need to be activated to become behaviour...

Right-wing media are pivotal for the success of the political right. We investigate the discursive trends in roughly 57,000 articles published in Germany’s biggest far-right weekly newspaper, Junge Freiheit (JF), between 1997 and 2019. During this period, JF expanded steadily in terms of both circulation and output. Quantitative content analyses re...

Results from previous research suggest that terrorist attacks lead to relatively short‐term increases in trust in institutions. The explanation for this increase is known as the ‘rally effect’, whereby individuals respond to crises and threats with more positive support for political leaders and institutions. Even though the number of related natur...

This study explores how researchers' analytical choices affect the reliability of scientific findings. Most discussions of reliability problems in science focus on systematic biases. We broaden the lens to emphasize the idiosyncrasy of conscious and unconscious decisions that researchers make during data analysis. We coordinated 161 researchers in...

Immigration is a hotly-debated topic in many countries around the world. We examine how immigration-related political elite discourses affect natives’ attitudes towards immigration and how these discourses contribute to polarisation along political and socio-economic dimensions. Drawing upon longitudinal cross-national data from the European Social...

Results from previous research suggest that terrorist attacks lead to relatively short-term increases in trust in institutions. The explanation for this increase is known as the “rally effect”, whereby individuals respond to crises and threats with more positive support for political leaders and institutions. Even though the number of related natur...

In the last 20 years, several major terror attacks conducted in the name of political Islam hit Western Europe. We examine the impact of such terror attacks on hostile behaviour on social media from a cross-national perspective. To this end, we draw upon time-stamped, behavioural data from YouTube and focus on the frequency and popularity ('likes')...

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N = 10, 535 participants from 24 countries...

The relationship between police and ethnic minorities has been the subject of increasing interest in many Western societies in recent years. We examine first-generation immigrants' trust in the police in Europe from a comparative and longitudinal perspective. Based on roughly 20,000 immigrants observed in 22 countries over 13 years in the European...

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, social restrictions and social distancing policies forced large parts of social life to take place within the household. However, comparatively little is known about how private living situations shaped individuals experiences of this crisis. To investigate this issue, we analyze how expe...

The paper reports findings from a crowdsourced replication. Eighty-four replicator teams attempted to verify results reported in an original study by running the same models with the same data. The replication involved an experimental condition. A “transparent” group received the original study and code, and an “opaque” group received the same unde...

The relationships between police and minorities have received increasing interest in many Western societies in recent years. We examine first-generation immigrants’ trust in the police in Europe from a comparative and longitudinal perspective. On the contextual level, we test the impact of police size on trust and, on the individual level, we analy...

We analyze whether the Islamist terror attack on the Christmas market in Berlin in 2016 had an impact on public opinion toward immigration in general and, since the attacker has entered Germany to apply for asylum, toward refugees in particular. An analysis of this natural experiment reveals a negative shift regarding the latter, while no differenc...

News media have transformed over the last decades, there being increasing numbers of online news suppliers and an increase in online news consumption. We examine how reporting on immigration differs between popular German online and print media over three crucial years of the so-called immigration crisis from 2015 to 2017. This study extends knowle...

Findings from 162 researchers in 73 teams testing the same hypothesis with the same data reveal a universe of unique analytical possibilities leading to a broad range of results and conclusions. Surprisingly, the outcome variance mostly cannot be explained by variations in researchers’ modeling decisions or prior beliefs. Each of the 1,261 test mod...

Family structure is a critical axis through which social inequality is reproduced. The COVID-19 pandemic can exacerbate the already existing socio-economic gaps between family structures. To investigate this issue, we analyze how experiences and concerns vary across living arrangements along two dimensions that may be associated with social disa...

With a growing Muslim population, many European countries need to integrate Muslims into their societies. One aspect that can hinder successful integration are substantial differences in human values. This is because such values are consequential for attitudes as well as behavior. We compare basic human values between Muslim immigrants and non-Musl...

Germany is currently experiencing a huge inflow of migrants. In this vignette study, we analyze how much different kinds of migrants are accepted in Germany. We investigate three different rights for migrants: the right to stay in Germany, the right to work in Germany and the right to receive social benefits. Our results show that people who flee f...

COVID-19 is having a tremendous impact on gender relations, as care needs have been magnified due to schools and day-care closures. Using topic modeling on over 1,100 open reports from a survey fielded during the first four weeks of the lockdown in Germany, we shed light on how personal experiences of the lockdown differ between women and men. Our...

Immigration is among the most vividly discussed topics in Europe’s national parliaments in recent years, often with a particular emphasis on the inflow of Muslims. This article examines the link between articulations of national political parties (political elite discourses) and natives’ attitudes toward immigrants in Europe. It provides a nuanced...

Mass media have long been discussed as an essential determinant of the threat perceptions leading to anti-immigration attitudes. The field of empirical research on such media effects is still comparatively young, however, and lacks studies examining precise measures of the media environment an individual is likely to be actually exposed to. We empl...

Based on an innovative design, combining a multi-factorial survey experiment with a longitudinal perspective, we examine changes in the public acceptance of immigrants in Germany from the beginning of the so-called ‘migration crisis’ to after the sexual assaults of New Year’s Eve (NYE) 2015/2016. In contrast to previous studies investigating simila...

COVID-19 is having a tremendous impact on gender relations, as care needs have been magnified due to schools and day-care closures. Using topic modeling on over 1,100 open reports from a survey fielded during the first four weeks of the lockdown in Germany, we shed light on how personal experiences of the lockdown differ between women and men. Our...

We analyze whether the Islamist terror attack on the Christmas market in Berlin in 2016 had an impact on public opinion toward immigration in general and, since the attacker has entered Germany to apply for asylum, toward refugees in particular. An analysis of this natural experiment reveals a negative shift regarding the latter, while no differenc...

We analyze whether the Islamist terror attack on the Christmas market in Berlin in 2016 had an impact on public opinion toward immigration in general and, since the attacker has entered Germany to apply for asylum, toward refugees in particular. An analysis of this natural experiment reveals a negative shift regarding the latter, while no differenc...

Immigration is among the most vividly discussed topics in Europe’s national parliaments in recent years, often with a particular emphasis on the inflow of Muslims. This article examines the link between articulations of national political parties (political elite discourses) and natives’ attitudes toward immigrants in Europe. It provides a nuanced...

News media have shape-shifted over the last decades, with rising online news suppliers and an increase in online news consumption. We examine how reporting on immigration differs between popular German online and print media over three crucial years of the so-called immigration crisis, from 2015 to 2017. We extend knowledge on framing of the crisis...

In an era of mass migration, social scientists, populist parties and social movements raise concerns over the future of immigration-destination societies. What impacts does this have on policy and social solidarity? Comparative cross-national research, relying mostly on secondary data, has findings in different directions. There is a threat of sele...

Immigration has been a vividly discussed topic in Europe in recent years, leading to an increased polarisation in many Western societies. This relates to rising immigration rates as well as to significant, dramatic events such as terrorist attacks and acts of xenophobic violence. A plethora of studies has investigated the impact of a country’s actu...

Stata do files for Czymara & Dochow (2018): Mass Media and Concerns about Immigration in Germany in the 21st century: Individual-level Evidence over 15 Years. European Sociological Review. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcy019

Zusammenfassung Wir diskutieren ein Vignettendesign, welches auf der Ziehung einer d-effizienten Einzelstichprobe aus dem gesamten Vignettenuniversum basiert. Hierfür gehen wir zunächst auf die zugrundeliegende Annahme vernachlässigbarer Interaktionen zwischen Vignettenmerkmalen ein. Eine anschließende Simulation veranschaulicht potenzielle Konsequ...

Data, Stata do- & log-file for the article Refugees Unwelcome? Changes in the Public Acceptance of Immigrants and Refugees in Germany in the Course of Europe’s 'Immigration Crisis'

EN: Germany is currently experiencing a high inflow of migrants. In this vignette study, we analyze how much different kinds of immigrants are accepted in Germany. We investigate three different rights for immigrants: the right to stay in Germany, the right to work in Germany, and the right to receive social benefits. Our results show that people w...

EN: Germany is currently experiencing a high inflow of migrants. In this vignette study, we analyze how much different kinds of immigrants are accepted in Germany. We investigate three different rights for immigrants: the right to stay in Germany, the right to work in Germany, and the right to receive social benefits. Our results show that people w...

EN: Germany is currently experiencing a high inflow of migrants. In this vignette study, we analyze how much different kinds of immigrants are accepted in Germany. We investigate three different rights for immigrants: the right to stay in Germany, the right to work in Germany, and the right to receive social benefits. Our results show that people w...