diff --git a/pandas/core/frame.py b/pandas/core/frame.py
index fe9c9bece1f79..fd013eca10f82 100644
--- a/pandas/core/frame.py
+++ b/pandas/core/frame.py
@@ -2628,7 +2628,7 @@ def set_index(self, keys, drop=True, append=False, inplace=False,
         -------
         dataframe : DataFrame
         """
-        if not isinstance(keys, list):
+        if not com.is_list_like(keys):
             keys = [keys]
 
         if inplace: