The Values in Crisis Project: A three-wave panel study in Germany and the United Kingdom

This article introduces the data from the Values in Crisis project conducted in Germany and the United Kingdom. The project seized the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment to investigate whether, how and to what extent people’s moral values change as a result of a disruptive event of massive order and global scale. An online panel survey measured individuals’ experiences with COVID-19, moral values, personality traits and social orientations at three different stages throughout the pandemic: at its onset (Wave 1: April–May 2020), one year later amidst the pandemic (Wave 2: February–March 2021), and two years later towards its end (Wave 3: February–April 2022). The samples for Wave 1 were drawn using quota sampling along gender, age group, level of education, and country region for the population aged 16 and above in Germany (N_DE,W1 = 2,005), and 18 and above in the UK (N_UK,W1 = 2,033). The samples for Wave 2 consist of re-contacted participants at a retention rate of 63.99% for Germany (N_DE,W1–2 = 1,283) and 56.57% for the UK (N_UK,W1–2 = 1,150). The samples for Wave 3 comprise of re-contacted participants at a retention rate of 43.74% in Germany (N_DE,W1–3 = 877) and 37.73% in the UK (N_UK,W1–3 = 767) as well as newly recruited participants (N_DE,W3 = 381, N_UK,W3 = 461). The data can be used for various secondary analyses on the topics covered in the survey.