Survey of Consumer Attitudes and Behavior, Fall 1962

This survey was undertaken to assess consumer sentiment and buying plans, as well as to provide information on the geographic mobility of adults and families. Open-ended questions were asked concerning evaluations and expectations about price changes, the unemployment problem, recession, and the national business situation. Questions were also asked on travel, reasons for travel, cost, mode of transportation, and vacation place preference. Other questions focused on welfare, state or local government aid or assistance, respondents' pension plans, savings, self-perceived class status, United States citizenship, type of house and neighborhood lived in, political party identification, voting behavior, and the degree of respondents' interest in politics. Information was also obtained on respondents' attitudes toward various forms of savings and various types of employment agencies. Additional variables probe respondents' buying intentions for a house, automobiles, appliances, and other consumer durables, as well as respondents' appraisals of present market conditions for purchasing these items. Other variables probe respondents' opinions of the Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the West and its effect on business conditions in the United States, as well as their assessment of their financial status relative to the previous year. Demographic variables provide information on actual and expected family size, age, marital status, sex, race, place of birth, education, occupation, family income, and religion.