Consumer attitudes, like how confident people feel about the economy, can help predict how much households will spend in the US. By looking at different measures of consumer confidence, researchers found that the Index of Consumer Expectations is better at forecasting spending than the Index of Consumer Sentiment. This means that how optimistic or pessimistic people are about the future economy can give clues about how much they will spend. This also shows that consumer confidence can help predict future spending growth, going against the idea that spending is random.