Changes in Social Capital During the Covid-19 Pandemic : A Comparative Study for Singapore and Switzerland

The COVID-19 pandemic is characterized by social distancing regulations in many countries. At a first glance, such regulations seem to harm residents’ networking, their volunteering, trust, cohesion building activities, etc. which are important facets of social capital. In this study, we analyze whether social distancing rules affect the social capital and whether over time key factors of social capital change. Our study investigates into this topic for two countries, Singapore and Switzerland, based on two representative surveys run in June 2020 and June 2021. We find that in both countries the social capital did not decrease, but rather slightly increased during the pandemic crisis. In particular, during the above-mentioned period of social distancing regulations, social bonds, social trust and support among residents increased by between 10 and 20% in both countries and residents’ trust in government became higher (by approximately 15%) in Singapore. Moreover, we observe that a religious anchoring seems to augment social capital. Overall, our results are encouraging since they imply that social capital is rather stable during a crisis, even if regulations impede physical social encounters