2026/07/13 by Eva Moreno‐Bella, Mar Montoya‐Lozano, Armel Brizuela Rodríguez +1 · 1 voice
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Corruption and Economic Development #Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction #Social Capital and Networks
paper · doi:10.1177/02134748261460646
openalex publication_date 2026/07/13 · openalex created_date 2026/07/14 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/14
The degree to which people accept inequality influences their socio-political attitudes. However, we do not yet know the extent to which such acceptance is associated with trust in the incumbent government and, going a step further, how both relate to the perceived economic performance of the country in question. In our research, we analyse this relationship in Costa Rica, an economically unequal country with a moderate level of support for the government. First, we use structural equation modelling to analyse data from a national survey and subsequently from the Latinobarómetro public opinion survey. In the first study ( N = 939), we find that acceptance of economic inequality is positively associated with trust in government and the president. In the second study ( N = 862), we find that acceptance of inequality is related to a higher level of perceived economic performance, and an indirect effect through greater trust in government. Acceptance of inequality impacts politically on favourable attitudes towards government and economic performance, representing a distorted view of the country’s economic reality.