Altruism, Political Trust, and Their Influence on COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic reconfirmed the fact that not everyone is motivated to receive vaccination. In fact, many showed hostility to COVID-19 vaccination, raising public health concerns. Thus, this study explores the factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination intentions, focusing on altruism and political trust and arguing that they are positively associated with individuals’ vaccination intentions. More importantly, this study examines whether political trust serves as a moderator between altruism and vaccination intentions. We argue that political trust strengthens the positive relationship between altruism and vaccination intentions. We relied on the 2021 Korean General Social Survey, which yielded a sample of 306. Employing an ordered logit regression, we found that individuals’ levels of altruism are positively associated with their vaccination intentions. Although the individual level of political trust was not statistically significantly linked to vaccination intentions, it was proven to strengthen the positive link between individuals’ levels of altruism and their vaccination intentions. The results suggest the importance and need to cultivate individuals’ altruism as well as their political trust.