Economic Inequality and Unfairness Evaluations of Income Distribution Negatively Predict Political and Social Trust: Evidence from Latin America over 23 years
Fecha
2024-01-09
Tipo
artículo original
Autores
García Sánchez, Efraín
García Castro, Juan Diego
Willis, Guillermo B.
Rodríguez Bailón, Rosa
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Resumen
Research has produced mixed results on the relationship between economic inequality and social and political trust. These studies
overrepresent developed countries, cross-sectional designs, and overlook the role of subjective evaluations of inequality. We
use 13 waves from 18 Latin American countries over 23 years (above 250,000 participants) to examine the association between
structural inequality and fairness evaluations with political and social trust. Multilevel regression analyses for comparative longitudinal
surveys suggest that within-country changes in economic inequality over time are negatively associated with political and
social trust. However, between-country inequality was negatively related to social trust but not political trust. In addition, fairness
evaluations of inequality were positively related to social and political trust. Exploratory analyses revealed that fairness evaluations
mediated the negative association between economic inequality and political and social trust. We discussed that fairness
evaluations of inequality may explain why inequality affects social and political trust.
Descripción
Palabras clave
Economic inequality, perceptions of inequality, fairness evaluations, political trust, social trust