Appendix: Methodology

The Varying Degrees survey was administered using NORC’s AmeriSpeak Panel for the sample source. Funded and operated by NORC, AmeriSpeak is a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the U.S. household population. A general population sample of U.S. adults aged 18 and older was selected for this study.

The sample for a specific study is selected from the AmeriSpeak Panel using sampling strata based on age, race/Latinx ethnicity, education, and gender (48 sampling strata in total). The size of the selected sample per sampling stratum is determined by the population distribution for each stratum. In addition, sample selection takes into account expected differential survey completion rates by demographic groups so that the set of panel members with a completed interview for a study is a representative sample of the target population. If a panel household has one more than one active adult panel member, only one adult in the household is eligible for selection (random within-household sampling). Panelists selected for an AmeriSpeak study earlier in the business week are not eligible for sample selection until the following business week.

For this study, in addition to the general population sample, an extra sample from the AmeriSpeak Panel was pulled to hit specific targets for current college student and student loan holder oversamples. College student status was confirmed at questions D4 and D5, and student loan status was confirmed at question D3 (questionnaire available in data download section of this report and the data file contains the oversample data).

A sub-sample AmeriSpeak web-mode panelists were invited to the survey on February 26, 2021 in a soft launch. The initial data from the soft launch was reviewed and the remainder of sampled AmeriSpeak panelists were invited to the survey on Monday, March 1. Data collection took place between February 26 and March 17, 2021.

NORC collected 2,620 total interviews: 2,491 by web mode and 129 by phone mode. More information about response rate, breakdown of participants, and margin of error can be viewed with the NORC Card in the data download section of this report.

To administer the phone survey, NORC dialed the sampled phone-mode panelists throughout the collection period. To encourage study cooperation among web-mode panelists, NORC sent email and SMS text message reminders after the initial contact between Friday, February 26 and Monday, March 15. These web panelists were allowed to complete the survey via phone if convenient. Panelists were offered the cash equivalent of $3.