Does economics matter to you?
In March 2023 342 Austrians were surveyed on behalf of the “Im-Fokus” report for m.core/WU Vienna. The topic of this survey was the respondents’ attitude towards the topic of economics: would they recommend studying economics? And what do they think of the current economic model?
Respondents who report earning more than 2,500€ per month (60%) would recommend studying economics to their close persons more often than people who report earning up to 2,500€ (40%) (x2(279) = 10.36, p = .006).
When asked whether the current economic model is doomed to fail, 46% answered “yes”, 22% answered “no” and 32% said that they don’t know. Women (42% answer option “I don’t know”) are more reserved about this question compared to men (26% answer option “I don’t know”) (x2(339) = 9.89, p = .007).
On average, men are also more likely than women to say that economics is their subject (t(339)= 4.02 p= <.001). Participants earning over €2,500 a month (M= 4.3; SD= 1.6) also show a significant difference compared to people earning up to €2,500 (M= 3.7; SD= 1.5) (t(277)= 3.35 p= <.001).
What about ChatGPT?
As part of the survey, participants were additionally asked whether they had already tried the new artificial intelligence ChatGPT. Among those under 40, 33% said they had already tried ChatGPT, while among those over 40 the figure was 13% (p<.001). By the way: ChatGPT itself speculated on this question that already more than 60% of the under 40-year-olds and 40% of the over 40-year-olds in Austria had tried ChatGPT at the time of the survey.
The survey was answered by 342 participants (50.1% female, 49.6% male, 1 person diverse), with an average age of 42.9 years (standard deviation 14.1).
Find the full study in German here!
published: 27.04.2023
