About
Methodology & attribution
Strata is a static explorer for the precomputed outputs of the UAS social-media panel survey (UAS514–UAS519). Every chart you see is a slice of a JSON file generated by a documented R pipeline. Nothing is computed on the fly.
Survey waves
Six waves of the Understanding America Study were collected between 2023 and 2025. Each row below shows the field dates and the unweighted sample size in the cleaned panel that Strata serves.
| Wave | UAS # | Field dates | Targeted n | n in cleaned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wave 1 | UAS514 | March 2 - May 7, 2023 | 3,066 | 1,966 |
| Wave 2 | UAS515 | August 7 - September 17, 2023 | 1,966 | 1,619 |
| Wave 3 | UAS516 | September 4 - October 15, 2023 | 1,966 | 1,600 |
| Wave 4 | UAS517 | November 6, 2023 - February 18, 2024 | 4,520 | 2,984 |
| Wave 5 | UAS518 | February 5, 2024 - May 19, 2024 | 4,437 | 2,992 |
| Wave 6 | UAS519 | October 14, 2024 - January 4, 2025 | 4,090 | 2,742 |
Variable coverage
The Strata data dictionary catalogs 182 variables across 12 survey domains. 154 of those have analyzable rows in the precomputed JSONs — the remainder are reserved for free- response text (which lives outside the public repo) or items that require additional runtime expansion not implemented for v0.1.0.
| Domain | Vars | Analyzable | Text-only | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI_ATTITUDES | 64 | 47 | 17 | |
| PLATFORM_USE | 43 | 33 | 10 | |
| DEMOGRAPHICS | 15 | 15 | ||
| WELLBEING | 12 | 12 | ||
| SOCIAL_MEDIA_BELIEFS | 10 | 10 | ||
| POLITICAL | 10 | 10 | ||
| INSTITUTIONAL_TRUST | 8 | 8 | ||
| DEPRESSION_ANXIETY | 6 | 6 | ||
| TECH_IDENTITY | 5 | 5 | ||
| LONELINESS | 4 | 4 | ||
| TECH_REGULATION | 3 | 3 | ||
| SURVEY_QUALITY | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Total | 182 | 154 | 28 | 0 |
Suppression
Cells with fewer than 30 respondents are suppressed by design. The underlying JSON rows are emitted with all statistic fields set to null and a suppressed: trueflag, rather than being omitted. Strata renders an “insufficient n” placeholder when it encounters one. The exact policy documented in meta.json:
Cells with n < cell_floor are emitted with NA values and suppressed:true (not omitted).
Weighting
Every precomputed row carries weighted estimates (weighted_value, with matching standard errors, confidence intervals, and effective sample sizes). UAS provides probability weights to adjust for panel design and non-response; weighted estimates are generalizable to U.S. adults at the time of each wave.
Correlations
All pairwise correlations in Strata are Spearman’s ρ, computed per wave. Spearman handles ordinal Likert and skewed count variables better than Pearson and does not assume a linear relationship. Where the underlying scale is reverse-coded, the flip is applied at the cleaning stage; the UI does not need to re-flip. Correlation is not causation, and small samples or small ρ values should be interpreted with caution.
Cite this tool
For aggregate citation:
Motyl, M. (2026). Ground Truth Strata (v0.1.0) [Data explorer for the UAS social-media panel survey]. https://strata.mattmotyl.com
Individual findings have a per-chart citation block that records variable, wave, weighting status, and the precomputed-JSON generated timestamp.
Required UAS attribution
These data are from survey(s) administered by the Understanding America Study, which is maintained by the Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR) at the University of Southern California. The outputs of Strata are the responsibility of its users and do not necessarily represent the official views of USC or UAS. The tool should be considered an early beta-level app and results should be confirmed with the raw data. Consistent with open science practices, any individual is able to access these data for purpose of replication or research after free registration with the Understanding America Study (uasdata.usc.edu/page/Registration+Form), and provision of a signed data use agreement. You may also communicate with this tool’s creator via email or GitHub requests (github.com/mattmotyl/ground-truth-strata).