Good governance can promote vaccination intention even among conspiracy believers: An analysis of survey data from four countries

An analysis of 2021 data from South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States reveals that citizens’ conspiracy beliefs undermine their intention to vaccinate against COVID-19, whereas their positive evaluations of governmental countermeasures promote it. Importantly, among respondents with the most negative evaluations, those with the strongest beliefs in conspiracy theories are significantly less willing to get vaccinated than those who do not believe in conspiracy theories. However, this difference decreases as the evaluations become more positive and becomes negligible in the group with the most positive evaluations. These results suggest the importance of good governance.