Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33218888›Full record

ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2020

Response to Lindström (2020) on "The trouble with trust: Time-series analysis of social capital, income inequality, and COVID-19 deaths in 84 countries".

Frank J Elgar, Anna Stefaniak, Michael J A Wohl

Open access · greenAbstract readComment
In one paragraph

Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
0.2field-weighted citation impact, top 40% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Frank J ElgarInstitute for Health and Social Policy, McGill University, 1130 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Electronic address: frank.elgar@mcgill.ca.
Anna StefaniakDepartment of Psychology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: AnnaStefaniak@cunet.carleton.ca.
Michael J A WohlDepartment of Psychology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: MichaelWohl@cunet.carleton.ca.
Carleton University · CAMcGill University Health Centre · CA

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

There is substantial cross-national variation in the damage caused by COVID-19 and scant evidence on social and cultural factors that contribute to this variation. Our ecologic study of country differences in COVID-19 mortality found that deaths have increased faster in societies that had less confidence in state institutions and less civic engagement, more social trust and group affiliations, and higher income inequality (Elgar et al., 2020). Here, we respond to three criticisms of the study raised by Lindström (2020) regarding (1) socioeconomic patterns in influenza pandemics and the current COVID-19 pandemic, (2) data gaps in cross-national studies of wealth inequality and (3) the robustness of our findings across previous survey cycles of the World Values Survey. We stand by our results and encourage further investigation using larger samples, longer time periods and different approaches and measures. It is vital for social science to contribute to policy decisions that can mitigate the enormous human toll of the pandemic.

Indexed as

COVID-19Social CapitalHumansIncomePandemicsSARS-CoV-2Socioeconomic FactorsTrustCovid-19Ecological studyIncome inequalitySocial capitalSocioeconomic status

Identifiers

PMID33218888
PMCPMC9981326
OpenAlexW3103114570

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.