Motivations behind Vaccine Hesitancy: Examining Altruism and Government Distrust across Job Sectors during COVID-19

This article examines vaccination and vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on the role of altruism and distrust in government across different job sectors. Using the Household Pulse Survey, a nationally representative and near real-time dataset administered by the United States Census Bureau, our findings suggest that there is a clear difference in vaccine take-up and vaccine hesitancy across job sectors. We find that government and nonprofit employees are more likely to receive vaccines and, if not vaccinated yet, are less vaccine-hesitant than private-sector employees. Additionally, motivations behind vaccine hesitancy, particularly altruism and distrust in government, varied according to one’s sector affiliation. Government and nonprofit employees, compared to private employees, were more likely to be vaccine hesitant for altruistic motivations. Differences in government distrust across sectors bore unexpected results, as we found no difference between government and private employees, while nonprofit employees were less likely to be vaccine hesitant due to government distrust. We discuss the implications and contributions of this article and suggest future agenda for COVID-19 research and sector comparison literature.