Social relations maintained for other purposes serve as low-cost channels for acquiring scarce information.

Evidence

One means by which information can be acquired is by use of social relations that are maintained for other purposes. … All these are examples of social relations that constitute a form of social capital that provides information that facilitates action. The relations in this case are not valuable for the “credit slips” they provide in the form of obligations that one holds for others’ performances or for the trustworthiness of the other party but merely for the information they provide. — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 99

An important form of social capital is the potential for information that inheres in social relations. Information is important in providing a basis for action. But acquisition of information is costly. At a minimum, it requires attention, which is always in scarce supply. One means by which information can be acquired is by use of social relations that are maintained for other purposes. — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 99

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘credits and debits’ framing of social capital from the Club of senators passage earlier; also echoes the idea of costly attention as a scarce resource in information economics. — connects to: Trustworthy behavior requires some information cost, but imperfect information can suffice. — PAUL R. MILGRO, PAUL R. MILGRO - THE ROLE OF…, 131; Preexisting social ties make intra-community monitoring cheaper than external oversight. — Lisa Bernestein, Opting out of the Legal System, 207
• SEED: The ‘information acquired at zero marginal cost through relations kept for other purposes’ idea could anchor an essay on how surveillance states and gossip economies both exploit this same attention-scarcity dynamic.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Coleman, SocialCapitalCreation-1988, 99

Related

• Trustworthiness as social capital produces benefits the trusted actor does not capture. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Trustworthy behavior requires some information cost, but imperfect information can suffice. #qualifies (0.75) — PAUL R. MILGRO, PAUL R. MILGRO - THE ROLE OF…, 131