Corruption Defines Brazil, But Not Brazilians, Study Says

10/24/2017 - 11h15

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FERNANDA MENA

FROM SÃO PAULO

Corruption is the behavior that best defines Brazil today, but honesty is what best characterizes Brazilians.

This contradiction is among the results of the unprecedented 2017 National Values Research, commissioned by the Crescimentum Consulting Firm in partnership with the British institution Barret Values Centre and conducted by Datafolha.

The survey investigates what Brazilians' personal values in 2017 are, those that they believe make up the current culture of the country and those are part of an ideal culture for the country.

In August of this year, 2,422 people from all regions of the country were presented with a list of about 90 values from which they needed to select ten that best described themselves, ten that best described Brazil today and ten that represented how the country ought to be.

While Brazilians chose friendship, honesty, respect, trust and patience as individual values that define themselves, they chose corruption, violence, aggressiveness and racial discrimination as national cultural characteristics.

The perception of generalized problems in the country has increased. This perception has increased from 51% in 2010 when the research was conducted for the first time to 61% in 2017.

Among the problems, the champion is corruption, which in 2010 was listed by 54% of those interviewed and in 2017 was identified by 72% of them.

In both individual personal and general cultural contexts, education, which had been missing previously from the list of responses, was pointed to as an important value.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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