Interactions between interpersonal distrust and economic inequality in Brazil [Interações entre desconfiança interpessoal e desigualdade econômica no brasil]

Abstract

There are stable and enduring positive correlations between economic inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient (measure of population income inequality) and the level of interpersonal dis(trust) as measured by WVS-World Values Survey (1995). Brazil is always among the first in both measures. Interpersonal distrust is a factor that damages the social capital of people, as the human capital of society, and consequently the country’s economy. Researchers seek the determinants of interpersonal distrust, and evaluate factors such as income, education, “race”, ethnicity and sex, however in the case of Brazil no single factor explains the high levels of mistrust, pointing to a “country effect”. In this research we argue that it is a personality factor that, however, has no temperamental basis, but results from personal experiences and social learning, lived collectively in a social environment of extreme inequality and violence, promoting the anxiety and illusory strategies for coping with it. We used the Questionnaire of the 16 Personality Factors in a sample of Brazilian students to demonstrate this statement with the dimension of distrust, where the group of those who know the astrology of the signs is significantly more suspicious than the group that does not know, indicating that they use this Knowledge to try to predict and prevent the behavior of others. For the reduction of inequality, therefore, economic interventions are not enough, it requires psychosocial intervention that progressively reduces the level of interpersonal mistrust. © 2017, Universidade de Taubate. All rights reserved.