8th Annual Likert Symposium – AI for Better Social Science: Capabilities and Challenges with Survey Research - 2026

Honoring a Legacy of Innovation

Rensis Likert, co-founder of the Survey Research Center (SRC), was the first director of the SRC as well as the Institute for Social Research. An organizational psychologist and developer of the Likert Scale—a cornerstone of social science measurement. Beyond his methodological innovations, Rensis Likert championed interdisciplinary collaboration and believed deeply in using social science research to effect positive change.

The Rensis Likert Fund, a generous gift from Likert’s family, invests in training new investigators who share Likert’s vision for improving how survey data are collected and used to keep the survey research vibrant and relevant through the Michigan Program in Survey and Data Science. The Likert fund facilitates annual Likert Symposium events and provides ongoing training opportunities for current students in survey and data science.

 A cornerstone of the Fund’s mission is connection and collaboration. Each year, MPSDS hosts the Likert Symposium—a dynamic gathering that brings together experts, researchers, and students from across disciplines.

The Symposium is more than a conference—it’s a celebration of innovation in survey methodology. Participants share ideas, showcase breakthroughs, and build partnerships that shape the future of social research. It’s where the next generation of survey scientists come together to honor Likert’s legacy and push the boundaries of what’s possible.

The topics highlighted at the Symposium are: 

AI-Assisted Conversational Interviewing: Effects on Data Quality and Respondent Experience

Presented by Soubhik Barari, Senior Research Methodologist, Methodology and Quantitative Social Science Department, NORC at the University of Chicago.

LLMs as Synthetic Respondents: A Tool for Augmenting Human Surveys

Presented by Serina Chang, Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley, jointly appointed in EECS and Computational Precision Health and part of the Berkeley AI Research (BAIR) Lab.

Validation and Interference for Survey Research Using Silicon Sampling

Presented by Lisa Argyle, Associate Professor of Political Science at Purdue.

Validating LLM Simulations as Behavioral Evidence

Presented by Jessica Hullman, Ginni Rometty Professor of Computer Science and Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.

Discussion

Presented by Ambuj Tewari, Professor, Department of Statistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor