Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey Research Articles

Police Unions, Race, and Trust in the Police

Abstract It has long been recognized that trust critically influences the effective functioning of political institutions, yet the determinants of trust in the police—a classic order institution—are still not well understood. We examine the effect of police unionization on trust in the police and, in particular, in mediating the adverse impacts of police killings of civilians on trust within the U.S. multiracial context. We analyze trust responses and corresponding demographic data on approximately 5,000 respondents across eleven metropolitan statistical areas from the 2006 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, matched to relevant city- and state-level correlates from three additional data sets. Our results confirm prior studies’ findings of a large gap between Black and non-Black trust. Although police killings of civilians normally reduce trust among non-Black people while leaving Black levels of trust unaffected, we find that in jurisdictions where police bargain collectively the drop in non-Black trust is effectively eliminated, suggesting that police unionization essentially abets the polarization of trust in the police between Black people and non-Black people.

Industrial Pollution, Social Trust, and Civic Engagement: A Nationwide Study of the Socioenvironmental Nature of Social Capital

I conduct a nationwide investigation of the relationship that toxic industrial pollution and the facilities that produce it have with trust and civic engagement within communities. Data on pollution exposure come from the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators Geographic Microdata (RSEI-GM) and Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data sets for the years 1995 to 1999. Data on trust and civic engagement come from the 2000 restricted-access Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey (SCCBS). Statistical analyses provide strong support for Freudenburg and Jones’ conceptualization of corrosive communities and indicate that exposures to more toxic air pollution associate negatively with various measures of trust, and that increased numbers of TRI facilities associate negatively with various measures of civic engagement. The implication is that exposure to toxic industrial air pollution and the facilities that produce it not only adversely affect the physical health of nearby communities, but also their social well-being and underlying capacities for collective action.

Individual social capital and migration

AbstractThis paper determines how individual, relative to community, social capital is related to individual decisions to move. We use non‐public data from the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey to predict multi‐dimensional social capital for observations in the Current Population Survey. We find evidence that individuals are much less likely to have moved to a community with average social capital levels lower than their own and confirm that higher individual social capital (across multiple dimensions) is negatively related to migration decisions.

Individual Social Captial and Migration

This paper determines how individual, relative to community social capital affects individual migration decisions. We make use of non-public data from the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey to predict multi-dimensional social capital for observations in the Current Population Survey. We find evidence that individuals are much less likely to have moved to a community with average social capital levels lower than their own and that higher levels of community social capital act as positive pull-factor amenities. The importance of that amenity differs across urban/rural locations. We also confirm that higher individual social capital is a negative predictor of migration.

US Decennial Census return rates: the role of social capital

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess whether additional information about a community’s level of social capital can help to better predict a return rate from that area, in order to better target resources to improve mail-in responses.Design/methodology/approachTwo-sample two-stage least squares is used to apply determinants of six different measures of social capital from the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey to observations in the Decennial Census (DC) which are then aggregated to the census tract level. The probability of a census tract having a high level of each social capital measure is estimated. Multivariate regression is used to identify the importance of high community social capital for predicting census mail-in return rates.FindingsThe analysis reveals that a higher level of trust contributes the most to increasing return rates and a high level of political activism decreases return rates. Additionally, higher levels of sociability contribute negatively to DC return rates, which is consistent with sociability being linked to a more insular (i.e. family and friends) focus.Practical implicationsWhile contributing statistically significantly to the predictability of census tract response rates, the cost of acquiring measures of social capital for each census tract may not to be viewed worth the gain in predictive power.Social implicationsHigher levels of trust contribute positively to survey participation, suggesting that any social, economic or political environment that diminishes trust will undercut civic engagement. Political activism and (insular) sociability decrease participation.Originality/valueThis paper combines non-public and public data to obtain measures of social capital along more dimensions than are typically studied, and finds that not all types of social capital are related to feelings of social integration in the same way.

A Geographic Information System (GIS)-Based Analysis of Social Capital Data: Landscape Factors That Correlate with Trust

The field of community sociology has yielded rich insights on how neighborhoods and individuals foster social capital and reap the benefits of interpersonal relationships and institutions alike. Traditionally, institutions and cultural factors have been lauded as catalysts of community social life and cohesion. Yet, the built environment and configuration of the landscape, including infrastructure, amenities and population density, may also contribute to community social capital. In this article, we embedded zip code-level responses from Harvard University’s Saguaro Seminar’s 2006 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey with a geographic information system. Specifically, we correlated responses on residents’ general trust, trust of one’s neighbors, and trust of members of other racial groups with local urban environmental factors and infrastructural indicators such as housing and street conditions, land use, city form, amenity access (e.g., libraries and schools), home vacancy rates, and home value. We conducted these tests at the national level and for Rochester, NY, due to its many survey responses. We found that housing vacancies drive down levels of social trust, as captured by homeownership rates and tenure, yielding higher levels of social trust, and that certain urban facilities correlate with high trust among neighbors. Results can inform urban planners on the amenities that support sustainable community ties.

Somewhere to Live, Something to Do, Someone to Love: Examining Levels and Sources of Social Capital Among People with Disabilities

Social capital has emerged as an important ingredient in the maintenance of physical and mental wellbeing. Although this construct has been studied within the disability community, a comparative analysis of social capital among individuals with disabilities and the general population is missing from the literature. Also sparse is an investigation into the sources from which people with disabilities draw their social capital. Building on the seminal work of political scientist Robert Putnam, a modified version of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey was administered to 218 adults with high support needs living with a broad range of disabilities and currently receiving support from one of six disability organizations across the United States and Canada. Chi-squared analyses were conducted to test for differences between observed frequencies and expected frequencies obtained from general population surveys on six key measures of social capital. Results indicate that, in most areas, social capital levels among individuals with disabilities were lower when compared with those of general population respondents. In cases where social capital levels were higher than or comparable to general population respondents, an incongruity between subjective evaluations and quantitative reports, and/or support received from non-normative sources such as parents and professionals are likely explanations. Our findings support continued efforts by rehabilitation professionals to facilitate community integration for people with disabilities through the promotion of friendships and other social relationships in a variety of contexts.

Measuring Diversity in Voluntary Association Membership

The membership diversity of voluntary associations is of central interest in the literature investigating the importance of involvement in voluntary associations for civic life. Due to the limited availability of data concerned with the membership composition of voluntary associations, many researchers have adopted a proxy approach that is based on an aggregation of the characteristics of survey respondents who belong to particular types of associations. However, this proxy approach has not yet been validated to assess whether it actually captures voluntary association membership diversity. We address this gap by comparing the proxy approach with a more direct approach for measuring association diversity by using data from the United States Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy Survey and the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey. Our analyses reveal that the proxy measures are not correlated with direct measures of voluntary association membership diversity.

Neighborhood Associations and Social Capital

In the United States, the past 50 years have witnessed a remarkable expansion of formal associations in residential neighborhoods, including homeowners associations, condo associations, crime watch groups, tenant associations, and special-interest neighborhood coalitions. Despite their prevalence and growing role in neighborhood governance, the relationship of these associations to interpersonal trust and networks among residents and outsiders remains understudied. Drawing on the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey (SCCBS), we estimate the impact of neighborhood association membership on bonding and bridging social capital in a nationally representative sample of residents. Among non-homeowners, our findings suggest that neighborhood association membership is linked to bonding social capital (such as a propensity to socialize and cooperate with neighbors and a positive perception of impact on community conditions), as well as bridging social capital (such as a greater likelihood of trust in racial out-groups). These benefits from neighborhood association membership are attenuated or reversed among homeowners. The results underscore the need for social scientists to consider the inherent tension in neighborhood associations, as institutions that ensure the protection of property values, on the one hand, and that promote neighborhood cooperation and quality of life, on the other.

Wage Determination in Social Occupations: The Role of Individual Social Capital

We make use of predicted and civic activities (social capital) to account for selection into social occupations. Individual selection accounts for more than the total difference in wages observed between and non-social occupations. The role that individual capital plays in selecting into these occupations and the importance of selection in explaining wage differences across occupations is similar for both men and women. We make use of restricted 2000 Decennial Census and 2000 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey. Individual capital is instrumented by distance weighted surrounding census tract characteristics.

Why Does Involvement in Voluntary Associations Promote Trust? Examining the Role of Network Diversity

Scholars argue that trust is fundamental to maintaining a healthy society, and consequently, recent evidence that trust may be declining in the United States has generated an interest in the determinants of trust. According to the social capital literature, particularly the work of Robert Putnam, involvement in voluntary associations influences the development of generalized trust. One way in which organizational participation is thought to foster trust is through creating more diverse, or bridging, social networks. However, scarcely any research has empirically examined this mechanism. Using data from the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, I test whether network diversity (ties to persons from different social backgrounds) accounts for some of the influence of organizational involvement on trust. The results suggest that the influence of involvement in multiple associations on trust is largely mediated by its influence on network diversity. In addition, while recent research observes that some predictors of trust vary by race and ethnicity, I find no differences in these relationships across non‐Hispanic white, African American, and Latino respondents.

Bringing the Congregations Back in: Religious Markets, Congregational Density, and American Religious Participation

We draw on the organizational ecology tradition to frame the relationship between the religious environment of a community and local religious participation. Prior research linking religious environments to religious participation downplays a key organizational aspect of religion: the congregation. Following the organizational ecology usage of density, we argue that congregational density—the number of congregations per person within a community—impacts religious involvement by providing opportunities for participation and by fostering social accountability networks within congregations. Drawing on data from the 2000 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, we test the hypothesis that congregational density in a locality is associated with greater religious participation by residents. Our findings indicate that persons residing in congregationally dense communities are more likely to be members of churches, to attend church regularly, to participate in church-based activities, to participate in non-church religious organizations, to volunteer for religious work, and to give to religious causes. These findings hold while controlling for an array of individual and contextual-level variables. This notion of congregational density suggests that local factors transcend broader theological and/or denominational boundaries, resulting in variations in religious participation and commitment.

Neighborhood Social Capital and Social Learning for Experience Attributes of Products

Social learning can occur when information is transferred from existing customers to potential customers. It is especially important when the information that is conveyed pertains to experience attributes, i.e., attributes of products that cannot be fully verified prior to the first purchase. Experience attributes are prevalent and salient when consumers shop through catalogs, on home shopping networks, and over the Internet. Firms therefore employ creative and sometimes costly methods to help consumers resolve uncertainty; we argue that uncertainty can be partially resolved through social learning processes that occur naturally and emanate from local neighborhood characteristics. Using data from Bonobos, a leading U.S. online fashion retailer, we find not only that local social learning facilitates customer trial but also that the effect is economically important because about half of all trials were partially attributable to it. Merging data from the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, we find that neighborhood social capital, i.e., the propensity for neighbors to trust each other and communicate with each other, enhances the social learning process and makes it more efficient. Social capital does not operate on trials directly; rather, it improves the learning process and therefore indirectly drives sales when what is communicated is favorable.

Exploring the Role of Catholicism in Filipino American Community Volunteerism and Participation

Filipino Americans are increasingly playing an important part in the demographic transformation of American Catholicism. However, little is known about the relationship(s) of Catholicism to Filipino American civic life. Drawing on survey analysis of the Social Capital Community Benchmark survey (SCCB), the present study explores the linkages between Catholicism, religiosity, and Filipino American community involvement. Findings suggest that being Catholic and religiously active can facilitate Filipino American community involvement. Significant differences were also found in the influence of religion on volunteering versus community participation indicating that part of the gap between Asian American Protestant and Catholic volunteering in previous studies may be due to methodological issues.

Religion, Social Capital, and Health

Religion's association with better physical health has been partially explained by health behaviors, psychosocial variables, and biological factors; but these factors do not fully explain the religion–health connection. In concert with the religion and health literature, a burgeoning literature has linked social capital with salubrious health outcomes. Religious organizations are recognized in the social capital literature as producers and facilitators of social capital. However, few studies have examined the potential mediating role of social capital in the religion–health relationship. Thus data from the 2006 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey were analyzed for 10,828 adults. The composite unstandardized indirect effect from religion to social capital onto health was significant (β = 0.098; p < 0.001). The unstandardized direct pathway from religion to self-reported health (β = 0.015; p = 0.336) indicated that social capital is a mediator in the religion–health relationship. Among the demographic variables investigated, only age and income had a significant direct effect on self-reported health.

Inactive by Design? Neighborhood Design and Political Participation

Critics have long denounced the design of suburban communities for fostering political apathy. We disaggregate the concept of suburban design into four distinct attributes of neighborhoods. We then use tract-level Census data, the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, and multilevel models to measure the relationship between these design features and political participation. Certain design aspects common in suburban neighborhoods are powerful predictors of reduced political activity, illustrating a potential link between neighborhood design and politics. Yet low-density environments appear to facilitate some types of participation. Suburban designs vary, and so do their likely impacts on political participation.

Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Self-rated Health: The Mediating Role of Social Trust

This study examines racial/ethnic disparities in self-rated health and their underlying social bases. Using a series of nested models and data on 24,767 individuals from the 2000 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey (Roper Center 2006), we assess initial differences among blacks, Latinos, and Asians in terms of their likelihood of reporting diminished health relative to whites. Subsequent models disaggregate Latino and Asian respondents by citizenship status and incorporate the traditional intervening factors of linguistic isolation and experience with discrimination. We then assess the respective roles of socioeconomic status (SES) and social trust in explaining racial/ethnic effects. Our findings point to important mediating roles for both SES and social trust, though their roles vary in importance across groups.

Evidence of the Impacts of Urban Sprawl on Social Capital

Sprawl opponents have blamed sprawl for weakening linkages among the residents and social capital but there is a lack of empirical evidence to support their argument. This study examines the relationship between the county sprawl index and social-capital factors from the 2000 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey data. Using 3-level hierarchical models, this study shows that for the US, urban sprawl may support some types of social capital while negatively impacting the others. Furthermore, changing urban form via population density and street accessibility at the county level may not be ideal to improve social capital.

The Economics and Sociology of Religious Giving: Instrumental Rationality or Communal Bonding?

Religious individuals commonly make sizable monetary sacrifices by contributing to their congregations. This social action resides in the overlap of religious and economic realms of behavior, creating a certain tension. Following a Weberian approach to social inquiry, I treat religious giving as social action whereby individuals direct their value-rational and instrumental-rational behavior towards others. Using data from the American Congregational Giving Survey and the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, I test hypotheses derived from a rational choice perspective, the sense of solidarity one feels, and from the religious meaning of the giver. Rational choice hypotheses produce mixed results, the solidarity impact is confirmed, and high levels of religiosity have a strong impact on giving.

New Housing Supply and the Dilution of Social Capital

This paper examines the role of local housing market conditions for social capital accumulation and neighborhood club good provision. A model of individual investment decisions predicts that in a setting with high property transaction costs (i) homeowners are more likely to invest in social capital than renters and (ii) the positive link between homeownership and social capital is stronger in more built-up neighborhoods with inelastic supply of new housing. In these neighborhoods homeowners are largely protected from inflows of newcomers that would dilute the net benefit from social capital in the longer run. Empirical evidence from the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey confirms the model predictions. Instrumental variable estimates suggest that the effects are causal.