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About

The Atlas of Social Attitudes is a platform allowing users to interactively explore and visualise social science data. It brings together indicators generated by cross-national scientific survey programmes, presenting them through visualisations, maps, graphs, and data stories. The Atlas aims to make it easier to find and use evidence about social and political attitudes and behaviours across Europe.

This platform is developed by the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, in connection with the Portuguese research infrastructure dedicated to the collection, analysis, preservation and dissemination of data on social and political attitudes and behaviours: PASSDA- Production and Archive of Social Science Data. PASSDA is the Portuguese node to several major international research networks and infrastructures, including the European Social Survey and the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archive (CESSDA).

Across Europe, survey programmes such as the European Social Survey and the European Values Study produce high-quality survey data about what people think and do. These data make it possible to understand social and political change in new ways.

What you can do here

For those unfamiliar with statistical software or digital archives, survey data may become difficult to access. The Atlas of Social Attitudes tries to facilitate this. Users can examine trends over time, compare countries and sociodemographic groups within them, and read curated data stories on important topics in public life. The platform allows a first look at the evidence, opening the door to future deeper analysis. It is intended for different audiences, including students, teachers, journalists, researchers, policy analysts and policymakers, civil society organisations, and, in general, citizens interested in better understanding their societies.

Why it matters

Public debate often relies on anecdotes, isolated numbers, and personal view and perceptions. The Atlas aims at offering a somewhat different starting point: reliable evidence from established survey research programmes. Obviously, it does not replace the use of archives with microdata and their detailed statistical analysis. However, it helps increasing the visibility of selected survey evidence, making it more accessible and useful.

In doing so, the Atlas also tries to improve public knowledge about social and political life, helping users answer questions about their societies. What is changing? Where do countries differ from each other? Which social groups see the world differently? And do these patterns tell us about democracy, social change and public life?