Enhancing social resilience: How social archetypes matter for designing effective policies – A case study for Singapore

This study introduces an innovative framework for assessing social resilience based on social archetypes, moving beyond traditional methods that often analyse social groups based on socio-economic or socio-demographic factors. By incorporating psychographic dimensions such as individual capacities and perceptions, which are more stable over time than socio-economic or socio-demographic characteristics, our approach aims to identify social archetypes as a tool to uncover nuanced social resilience performance patterns of distinct groups of individuals. Using empirical data from Singapore's working population ( n = 2542) and a k-means clustering approach, we identify three distinct archetypes, namely The Optimistic Leaders (27 %, n = 681), The Engaged Connectors (41 %, n = 1047), and The Reserved Individualists (32 %, n = 814) respectively, Each exhibiting distinct social resilience performance patterns under both stable conditions and disruptions. We observe unexpected reactions of social archetypes to (potential) disruptions: archetypes with relatively high social resilience performance levels under normal conditions show statistically significant declines in social cohesion and trust in leaders during crises. In contrast, social archetypes with less pro-social performances in normal times seem to activate latent social resilience performance levels during disruptions, exhibiting statistically significant increases in social networks and social support. Our results suggest that social archetypes matter for social resilience performances within a society and should be considered to design tailored measures for distinct social groups to effectively support and enhance social resilience. • We present a framework to assess the social resilience performance of societal groups • Social archetypes differ in social resilience in normal times, and under disruptions • An empirical analysis for working Singaporeans unveils three relevant social archetypes • Policies to enhance social resilience should be tailored to social archetypes