Economic Inequality and Unfairness Evaluations of Income Distribution Negatively Predict Political and Social Trust: Evidence from Latin America over 23 years

Abstract

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.