Abstract
This publication was sponsored by the Secretaría de Estado de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación of the San Juan Government, Argentina. Abstract In Argentina, inequality and poverty have reached alarming levels. However, societies that register high indexes of inequality do not necessarily present strong demands for a fairer society. According to studies in Psychology, social demands are conditioned more often by the perception of inequality than by real inequality. Furthermore, there are important variations in the perception of inequality among different population sectors. The current research intends to identify how variables, such as sex, age, educational level, objective status and subjective status, are associated with variations in the perception of inequality. It is a quantitative correlational study, whose sample consisted of 400 adults from Argentina, aged between 18 and 74 years ( M = 38.57, SD = 13.072). Participants answered a self-administered questionnaire regarding inequality. The results indicate that people perceive lower economic inequality than that registered by national statistics and this underestimation is conditioned by and associated with sociodemographic variables. Perceptual biases are higher when income and educational levels are lower. In addition, women perceive inequality more than men do. However, no variations in the perception of inequality were found according to the age of the respondents. The implications of this research and its contribution to promoting the study of inequality are discussed. Keywords: perceptual biases - economic inequality - sociodemographic variables - subjective status DOI : 10.7176/DCS/9-5-05 Publication date :May 31 st 2019
Highlights
Firstly the social and economic situation of Argentina is described, with special emphasis placed on national indexes of poverty and inequality
The results indicate that people perceive lower economic inequality than that registered by national statistics and this underestimation is conditioned by and associated with sociodemographic variables
We divide the average monthly salary of the managing director of large companies in various areas, as reported by the consulting firm Page Group (2018), by the minimum salary1 indicated by the Ministerio de Trabajo, Empleo y Seguridad Social [MTEySS] (2018), both for the third quarter of 2018
Summary
Firstly the social and economic situation of Argentina is described, with special emphasis placed on national indexes of poverty and inequality. Workers in the top 10%, whose average monthly income was $45,425 (at that time $1,133 USD), earned around 18 times more than workers in the bottom 10%, who had an average income of $2,511 (63 USD) (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos [INDEC], 2018). We divide the average monthly salary of the managing director of large companies in various areas, as reported by the consulting firm Page Group (2018), by the minimum salary indicated by the Ministerio de Trabajo, Empleo y Seguridad Social [MTEySS] (2018), both for the third quarter of 2018.
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