ArticlePloS one2021
How social capital helps communities weather the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 54 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
54 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Can Social Prescribing Foster Individual and Community Well-Being? A Systematic Review of the Evidence.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Social capital and changes of psychologic distress during early stage of COVID-19 in New orleans.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Regional and temporal patterns of partisan polarization during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and Canada.PloS one · 2026Article
- A social price to the rising cost of living? The bidirectional relationship between inflation and trust.Canadian review of sociology = Revue canadienne de sociologie · 2025Article
- Trust in doctors, social support, and belief in COVID-19 misinformation.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Vulnerability of Social Capital in Medical Education Due to Economic Sanctions: A Qualitative Study.Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran · 2025Article
- Social Capital and Economic Growth: An Analysis in South America.F1000Research · 2025Article
- Bridging social capital among Facebook users and COVID-19 cases growth in Arizona.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2024Review
- Social trust and COVID-19 mortality in the United States: lessons in planning for future pandemics using data from the general social survey.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Trust in Acquaintances, Strangers and Institutions among Individuals of Different Socioeconomic Statuses during Public Health Emergencies: The Moderation of Family Structure and Policy Perception.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Household preparedness for emergencies during COVID-19 pandemic among the general population of Nepal.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Disparities and protective factors in pandemic-related mental health outcomes: a Louisiana-based study.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- The effect of adaptive capacity on resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-country analysis.Jamba (Potchefstroom, South Africa) · 2024Article
- Emergent Social Capital during the Coronavirus Pandemic in the United States in Hispanics/Latinos.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the social sphere and lessons for crisis management: a literature review.Natural hazards (Dordrecht, Netherlands) · 2023Review
- Twitter's Role in Combating the Magnetic Vaccine Conspiracy Theory: Social Network Analysis of Tweets.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Role of social capital in response to and recovery from the first wave of COVID-19 in Thailand: a qualitative study.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Social capital and loneliness among older adults in community dwellings and nursing homes in Zhejiang Province of China.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Why do democracies respond differently to COVID-19? A comparison of the United States and South Korea.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- COVID 19 fatalities burden in Asian countries: An analysis of pattern and determinants.Social sciences & humanities open · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Why have the effects of COVID-19 been so unevenly geographically distributed in the United States? This paper investigates the role of social capital as a mediating factor for the spread of the virus. Because social capital is associated with greater trust and relationships within a community, it could endow individuals with a greater concern for others, thereby leading to more hygienic practices and social distancing. Using data for over 2,700 US counties, we investigate how social capital explains the level and growth rate of infections. We find that moving a county from the 25th to the 75th percentile of the distribution of social capital would lead to a 18% and 5.7% decline in the cumulative number of infections and deaths, as well as suggestive evidence of a lower spread of the virus. Our results are robust to many demographic characteristics, controls, and alternative measures of social capital.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.