The Structure of Moral Culture and the Effect of Social Capital in South Korea

This article seeks to categorize value classes in South Korea based on Schwartz’s human values and examine the influence of social capital. To achieve this, we employed latent class analysis as a typological approach. The analysis resulted in identifying four distinct value classes in South Korea. Despite South Korea’s economic structure paralleling that of Western European countries, the composition of value classes in South Korea resembles that of countries where Eastern and Western cultures coexist. This finding suggests that culture plays a more significant role than economic structure in shaping values. Furthermore, our results indicate a significant influence of social trust on value-neutral orientation, while social support networks play a fundamental role in socializing specific values. Finally, this research identified the estimated rate of value classes for each socio-demographic group.