Online Interviews

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index is published every month by the university’s Institute for Social Research. This index is put together by folks who track various aspects of US consumer attitudes, including their predictions about the future and how they feel about their current consumption-related costs and benefits.

This group has been producing this index since 1952, and it was normalized, its value set to 100, in Q1 1966.

So using that baseline, the survey-takers at the University of Michigan ask a bunch of people 50 core questions, and through the aggregated responses they determine how the US population is feeling about the economy. That data—consumer sentiment data—then helps everyone from economists to politicians figure out what to do next.

A recent post published in Briefing Book and written by economic researchers from Stanford and Yale analyzed the effects of a recent change in survey methodology—how the surveying of US consumers is conducted). Specifically, this changed allowed surveyors to conduct these interviews via the internet, rather than over the phone.

The folks behind the Consumer Sentiment Index are not alone in making this type of change: the Pew Researcher Center has shifted most of its efforts to the internet, as well, as have many political pollsters.