The course aims to give an overview of basic applications for bivariate statistical methods. It also aims to equip students with basic tools to interpret quantitative data stemming from surveys and public opinion polls. During the course, students will gain insight on how to answer research questions based on data from public opinion polls with quantitative data analysis. During the course, R will be applied to replicate a study from Larsen (2016) about attitudes towards income inequality for Germany. The focus will be on the techniques in R to successfully replicate the study. The course is divided into four main blocks: In the first block, students will learn about the basic logic of survey methodology and get acquainted with the software R. The second block focuses on fundamental steps of data exploration. The third block introduces students to various data management techniques. The fourth block deals with inferential statistics. In this block, simple bivariate techniques will be discussed. While all of these techniques will be taught with R, the course incorporates a syntax-based teaching method. Therefore, the skills learned in this course can be easily adapted to other syntax-based platforms (e.g.: Stata).The course targets especially students who would like to take their first (guided) steps into the world of empirical social research and are interested in scientific research, object-oriented programming and plan to develop their research competences and programming skills in the future. No knowledge of R is required. However, it is strongly recommended that lectures “Introduction to empirical social research” and “Introduction to social scientific statistics” are completed beforehand (or comparable).