21/11/23
2 min read
The Nuffield Foundation is funding a pioneering study that will shed light on how social connections can shape individual success and well-being.
The Revealing social capital project will examine how social capital – the strength and cohesiveness of a person’s network – affects social mobility and other life outcomes.
The research aims to offer actionable, data-driven recommendations for fostering social capital to improve individual quality of life.
The project, launching today, will be carried out in two phases. The first will map social connections using data from two social media platforms. The second will refine this evidence with further qualitative, community-based research.
The findings will be combined to inform policy and intervention design.
Project partners and background
The Foundation has provided a grant to a consortium of research organisations including the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), Stripe Partners and the Neighbourly Lab to deliver this project.
They will work with Opportunity Insights at Harvard University and Meta’s ‘Data for Good programme’ to map social connections using unidentifiable data from Facebook and Instagram. Research insights will then be used to develop and prototype policies and practical initiatives.
Revealing social capital recreates and builds on landmark research carried out by Raj Chetty, Professor of Public Economics at Harvard University in America. Professor Chetty’s work analysed over 20 billion Facebook friendships to measure the impact of social capital on economic success across states.
The UK study will go beyond the analysis conducted by Professor Chetty to look at a broader set of outcomes such as mental health and wider factors that facilitate the creation of social capital.
The Nuffield Foundation is delighted to fund this groundbreaking and ambitious study by a consortium of research organisations with distinct but complementary skills. By better understanding social connections and how they relate to lifetime opportunities, the Revealing social capital project will help to identify the means by which such opportunities could be more widely spread.Mark Franks, Director, Welfare
Publication of the data sets
As part of the project, researchers will create an interactive map that displays the level of social capital within each postcode sector in the UK. In line with the US work, the map will be made publicly available here.
The aggregated underlying data by postcode sector will also be made available through HDX, the Humanitarian Data Exchange.
Privacy and ethics
Permission to use Meta’s user data will be overseen by its independent ethics committee and comply with Meta’s privacy policy. Data will be aggregated to ensure no individual personal information is shared.
The research team is also set to appoint an additional Advisory Group of around 10 members, with expertise drawn from academic research, domain expertise in social capital, policy design and implementation, and dissemination.
