The Dynamics of Social Capital: Examining the Reciprocity between Network Features and Social Support

An essential tenet of social capital is that it is a reciprocal process: social networks produce desirable outcomes, and the resulting outcomes can then feed back into influencing networks. The current study is among the first to examine a dynamic, reciprocal process of social capital, using within-person measures from 2,065 reports of offline and online daily social interactions from 66 participants over a 1-week period. Results show that online and offline social interactions, characterized by tie strength and communication diversity, generate different levels of emotional, practical, and informational support, which, in turn, exerts differential influence on tie strength and diversity of subsequent interactions. Results also reveal a mismatch between the resulting social support and subsequent motivated social interactions. Importantly, social support reinforces subsequent tie strength but reduces communication diversity. Lay Summary This study has examined the reciprocal processes of social capital. Findings show that daily social activities produce benefits. These benefits and resources then drive later social activities. Daily online and offline social activities with close social contacts provide emotional and practical benefit. Online interactions with people of different backgrounds and opinions provide new information. After getting more benefits or resources from social activities, people increase their social activities with their close friends or families but reduce social activities with people of different backgrounds or different opinions.

Automated summary

Social capital is a reciprocal process where social networks produce different types of support and the outcomes influence subsequent social interactions. Importantly, social support reinforces tie strength but reduces communication diversity.