In recent years, there has often been talk of a shift to the right in society, but this is not supported by representative survey data. This raises the question of whether the purported societal shift to the right is a sociological perceptual phenomenon or whether doubts about the validity of the question on political self-positioning on the left-right scale are warranted. Together with Olaf Jandura, I have addressed the latter question. Our analyses show that 31 % of respondents in our sample position themselves incorrectly on the left-right scale. We were able to identify various reasons for this. The paper has now been published in the conference proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Media Reception and Effects Division of the German Communication Association (DGPuK) 2022 (open access!).
