Germany - Changing values: The need for security is rising
Survey conducted by the GfK Association on the importance of values
Nuremberg, February 5, 2010: The financial crisis is leading Germans to reconsider established values. Stable and social value concepts are becoming increasingly important for Germans. Being secure is the number one value, with around 70% of respondents taking the view that security is of rising significance in the current climate. These were the findings of the latest survey conducted by the GfK Association on the changing significance of values.
Regardless of income, region or gender, a rising need for security is emerging among the German people. Approximately two in three respondents named being secure as the value that is becoming most important in the current climate. In second place, the concept of home is proving increasingly essential to Germans in these uncertain times, with almost 60% now attaching more importance to their own four walls than previously.
Achievement held almost the same meaning for Germans, with 58% judging it to be crucial for the future. However, this is not to the detriment of community spirit, because social values are also rising in importance: trust (55%) and responsibility (52%) take fourth and fifth place on the value scale. Solidarity is also set to increase in significance according to almost half of respondents. Contrary to all the clichés of "complaining Germans”, optimism is in sixth place, with one in two believing that a positive attitude to life is required in these uncertain times.
In conjunction with rising awareness of achievement, both competition and innovation also appear in the rankings, although in the mid-range of the scale. When asked to name values that will become more important in future, 38% of respondents cited competition and 36% innovation.
Last in Germans’ value rankings are power, adventure and luxury. Markedly fewer people believe these values are rising in importance and in fact, a quarter of respondents assume that power will decrease in significance in future. In accordance with a higher need for security, 37% believe that adventure will play a smaller role in people’s lives. Of all the values in the survey, luxury has suffered the greatest decline: some 40% think that luxury will no longer hold the position in society that it used to. However, almost the same percentage assumes that nothing will change in people’s desire for luxury.
The survey
The "Changing value perception” survey was conducted in January 2010 by the GfK Association, questioning a total of 1,080 men and women over the age of 14. The survey investigated whether the significance of values is rising, falling or remaining the same in the current climate. The values cited were adventure, innovation, achievement, luxury, power, optimism, security, responsibility, trust, going without, competition and the home. Respondents are representative of the German population. Further information is available on the "Compact” Internet page, the current GfK Association info service, under the heading "Focus Topics”: http://www.gfkcompact.de
Contact
Claudia Gaspar
Research Manager
GfK Association
Tel. +49 911 395 2624
claudia.gaspar@gfkassociation.org
Sandra Lades
GfK Association Press Office
Tel. +49 911 395 3606
sandra.lades@gfkassociation.org
Press Release