What is the Citizen Barometer?
The University of Helsinki Citizen Barometer is a non-commercial online panel for research purposes. In practice, an online panel consists of a group of people who are willing to respond regularly to online survey questions. Survey invitations are sent out to participants by email. The questions in the Citizen Barometer deal with various societal themes and issues.
Why should I participate?
In order to give a representative picture of Finnish society, the Citizen Barometer needs an insight into everyone's opinions, attitudes and experiences. Therefore, your answers are important regardless of your place of residence, age, or world view. The Citizen Barometer provides an opportunity for everyone to express their views on current matters, in a safe and risk-free environment. By participating in the Citizen Barometer, you contribute to important research on Finnish society. In a society where many political and executive decisions are informed by scientific evidence, your contribution holds significant value.
How is my personal data managed?
Personal integrity is very important for those of us who work with the Citizen Barometer. E-mail addresses and information enabling responses to be linked to respondents are stored securely and separately from the data used for research. The data used by researchers to carry out studies, does not contain e-mail addresses or other information allowing individual respondents to be identified.
How will my answers be utilized?
Responses gathered by the Citizen Barometer are used for scientific research and the results are published in different contexts and formats, such as in scientific journals, popular scientific reports or in the media. Regardless of the format, it will never be possible to identify participants, or to link responses to individual respondents.
How can I be sure that this is a serious survey?
The Citizen Barometer is conducted jointly with the Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities (HSSH), and is led by Åsa von Schoultz, Professor of Political Science. The purpose of the Citizen Barometer is to promote innovative and socially relevant research. By allowing people to answer questions on socially relevant topics over an extended period of time, we make it possible to create unique knowledge about how society develops and how Finns react to changes taking place in their home country and in the world around them.