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Article History

Received: 18 July 2025

Accepted: 20 May 2026

First Online: 29 May 2026

Competing interests

: The author declares no competing interests.

: The study was assessed during the planning stage under the institutional ethics guidelines of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Media and Sport (FB02) at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), using the official JGU FB02 ethics checklist . On 27th January 2023, it was determined in accordance with these institutional guidelines that the study did not require submission to, or review by, a formal institutional ethics committee and therefore qualified for automatic exemption from ethics committee approval. No separate application to an institutional review board was required under JGU regulations for research meeting these criteria. The exemption applied because the study involved an anonymous online survey of adult participants only; no personally identifiable data were collected; no sensitive personal data were processed; and the study did not involve any intervention, deception, clinical procedures, or psychological or physical risks beyond those encountered in everyday life. The research was conducted in full conformity with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ESOMAR standards for social and market research, and all applicable national regulations in the countries of data collection (Germany, Spain, Norway, and Poland). The commercial survey provider Dynata carried out the recruitment and data collection in accordance with these ethical and legal frameworks .

: Informed consent was obtained electronically from all participants prior to participation in the study on 15th February 2023 and 15th April 2023. The sample ( N  = 7040) consisted of adult respondents registered as panel participants with the commercial survey provider Dynata. Only individuals aged 18 years or older were eligible to participate. Before accessing the online questionnaire, participants were informed of the research's purpose, the voluntary nature of participation, the right to discontinue participation at any time without consequences, and the intended use of the data for academic research and publication. Responses were processed anonymously, no personally identifiable information was collected, and no risks beyond those ordinarily associated with completing an online survey were anticipated. No vulnerable populations or minors were involved in the study. Full anonymity was ensured throughout data collection, storage, and analysis.