The Impact of Changing Political Positions on Charitable Donations: A Case Study of a Political Scandal in South Korea

This study examines whether political ideology switching by moderates mediates their charitable donations. Using the impeachment of Park Geun-hye, the former conservative president of South Korea, as a quasi-natural experiment, we find that the charitable donations of those who changed their political ideology from moderate to progressive after the corruption scandal increased by 16.8–17.9%. A battery of robustness tests supports the basic results. These findings imply that political scandals can affect moderates’ charitable behavior through the channel of political ideology switching.