ABSTRACT

In November 1995, interviewers from the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago traveled to 387 neighborhoods across America to conduct the National Issues Survey (NIS). This survey took about a half hour to complete and consisted of both interviewer-administered and self-completion sections. The survey focused on public attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge on three broad political and social topics-foreign affairs, the economy, and the family. After a six-week field period, interviews were secured from 910 respondents (a 72% response rate). Normally at that point the field effort would have ended and the completed questionnaires would have been turned into data for the researchers to analyze.