General Social Survey with Arts Module, United States (2022)

Cross-sectional data for the 2022 General Social Survey (GSS), along with an updated cumulative file for 1972-2022, is available at the project's data portal, along with the 2022 GSS Documentation and Public-use File Codebook (pdf). The GSS Data Explorer has also been updated. The 2022 GSS provides opinion data at a critical time in U.S. history as we move forward from the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to understand changes in post-pandemic society.

Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the 2022 GSS Arts Module was fielded between July 11th and September 21st, 2022, as a web-only follow-on study to the GSS and included questions about changes in individual's recreational activities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Arts Module's final sample size is 843 individuals (from 2,896 eligible GSS baseline respondents). To identify the individuals in the module, use the "NEASTATUS" variable. Additional information about weights for the module is also provided.

The 2022 GSS Arts Module includes 24 measures of respondents' participation in the arts through attendance at live performances, exhibits, movies, and the like, as well as consuming culture through online galleries, reading, or watching a recorded event. Respondents are asked to report about their participation over the past 12 months and to compare this to what they did from March 2020 to March 2021.

The 2022 GSS is the most recent in a series of modules covering similar topics. For example, the 1993 Culture Module included questions on musical preferences, leisure and recreational activities, and attitudes toward art and literature. The 1998 Cultural Module included questions on attendance in arts events, personal engagement in artistic activities, attitudes toward art and literature, and attitudes toward arts funding. The 2002 Cultural Module included questions on musical preferences, attendance at arts events, and personal engagement in artistic activities. In 2002, another module on the "Information Society" included questions on the use of the Internet to obtain information about the arts (e.g., how people use the Web to learn about music, the visual arts, and literature). The 2016 Arts and Culture Module added in new variables covering information regarding social media use, suicide, hope and optimism, arts and culture, racial/ethnic identity, flexibility of work, spouses work and occupation, home cohabitation, and health.