Written by Connor Zahler

Although QMSS as a program is brand-new, quantitative research has a long and storied history at the University of Michigan. Today, we’ll take a look at a figure essential to not only Michigan history, but the science of surveys as a whole: Rensis Likert.

Varied Beginnings

Rensis Likert was born in 1903 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. We don’t have much information about his early life, but we know his father was an engineer and Rensis intended to follow in his footsteps at the University of Michigan. After studying engineering for three years, though, his trajectory was radically altered by a sociology class with Professor Robert Angell (grandson of the same Angell as Angell Hall). Likert admired Angell so much that he transferred out of the College of Engineering and graduated with a degree in sociology. After a brief stint at Union Theological Seminary, he eventually graduated with a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University. At Columbia, he was influenced by noted psychologist Gardner Murphy and finally found a lifelong focus in social psychology, with a special interest in organizations.

Creating the Likert Scale

If you’ve taken a personality test, university survey, or filled out a teaching evaluation, you’re probably familiar with Likert’s most lasting contribution: the Likert Scale. While at Columbia, Likert was looking for a simple way to better measure the nuances of possible survey responses than a yes-no binary. To this end, he devised a scale that provided both directionality and an easy coding scheme. A simple Likert scale might have five options: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree. Each of these mutually exclusive responses can be assigned a numerical value (1-5) for statistical analysis. Here’s an example:

Q1: Rate your level of agreement with the following statement: Rensis Likert was important to the history of statistical social sciences. Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, Strongly Agree.

Since you’ve been reading this article, you’d answer Strongly Agree, which could be coded as a 5. If we asked 100 people that, we could use all those responses to get an aggregate level of agreement with that statement.

While the concept behind the Likert scale is incredibly simple, Likert was the first person to create a theoretical backing for it and put it to extensive use. Indeed, his work with the scales would be massively influential for both the history of social statistics and the history of the United States.

Putting the Scale to Work

Likert’s first major non-academic job was as the Director of Research for a Life Insurance company. There, he did some of the first studies on different styles of management. Shortly after, he was appointed Director of the Division of Program Surveys for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This division’s aim was to better measure and understand the impact of New Deal programs on those they served. Rather than relying solely on wide-ranging opinion polls, the division also conducted intensive interviews with selected participants to better examine their underlying attitudes and feelings. They were so successful that their responsibilities quickly grew, coming to encompass all the sample survey needs of the federal government. This ranged from gauging the reactions of Los Angeles residents to the attack on Pearl Harbor to measuring the impact of bombing campaigns on the morale of German civilians. These surveys guided Air Force actions and contributed to the eventual end of World War II.

Despite the major contributions of the Division of Program Surveys, funding was always hard to come by, and after the end of the war congressional opposition put an end to the program. Likert and his colleagues, however, felt their work was unfinished, and they searched for somewhere to keep it going. They would find a home at the University of Michigan.

Creating the Institute for Social Research

Likert and six of his colleagues created the Survey Research Center in 1946. In a few years, they would become the Institute for Social Research after a merger with the Research Center for Group Dynamics (formerly at M.I.T.) in 1949. While Likert did not work alone, his personality and reputation were essential in finding support, funding, and professional connections. Other than a location and payment for teaching, the University gave Likert the space to build the I.S.R. as an independent project and to succeed or fail on its own merits. 

Succeed it did! The Institute first garnered public attention for correctly predicting the outcome of the 1948 election. While almost every other pollster had Thomas Dewey defeating Harry Truman, the probability sampling used by the Institute showed a different outcome. Dewey’s victory seemed so certain that newspapers preemptively declared him the winner, leading to an iconic photo of a victorious Truman and an incorrect paper. Other pollsters began using probability sampling, which remains the standard for many polls today. QMSS students may be more familiar with it through its exciting and engaging Speaker Series.

The Final Years

Likert would continue directing the I.S.R. until 1970. While there, he contributed to hundreds of articles, studies, and books. After his retirement, he would move to Hawaii, publish two more books (including one with his wife, another noted scholar of organizational psychology) and make major contributions to the nascent field of Organizational Studies. His studies were a major influence on Japanese corporate leaders, contributing to the Japanese economic miracle. 

Conclusion

Likert’s contributions shaped the discipline of social statistics as we know it today. His scale and use of open-ended interviewing redefined the field, and his influence is palpable in any QMSS class, like when covering ordinal variables in QMSS 201. Not only that, but his career is inextricably linked with the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor; he’s even buried in the Forest Hill Cemetery (his gravestone is a stop on the Detroit Observatory’s tour there). So, the next time you’re answering one of the million surveys the University sends out or filling out a Buzzfeed quiz, remember that it can be traced back to a fellow Wolverine.

Bibliography and Further Reading

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (2022). Rensis Likert. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rensis-Likert 

Frantilla, A. (1998). Social Science in the Public Interest: A Fiftieth-Year History of the Institute for Social Research. Bentley Historical Library. 

Kish, L. (2018, January 23). Rensis Likert: Creator of Organizations. Amstat News. https://magazine.amstat.org/blog/2010/09/01/rensislikertsep10/ 

Image Credit: “ISR, Rensis Likert, December 1961; BL005652”. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/bhl/x-bl005652/bl005652. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 30, 2023.