Livre-arbítrio e meritocracia: os conceitos por trás da desigualdade econômica e da (não) redistribuição de renda

Abstract

Free will is a concept that is very present in philosophical debates over the centuries and refers to the freedom of action of human beings, that is, their power to choose, to make decisions freely. In this scenario, several neuroscientific experiments were carried out in order to investigate correlations between belief in free will and human behavior. Among them, one has essential relevance for this work, which found that the reduction in the belief in free will also reduced the belief in retributivism. Therefore, the hypothesis is that a stronger belief in free will is correlated with the individual belief in the legitimacy of economic inequality and, indirectly, with the belief in meritocracy, to the extent that retributivism can be considered the other side of the coin of meritocracy: the first consists of a moral justification for imposing pain and suffering on those who committed reprehensible acts of their own free will, while the second concerns distributing wealth according to the talents and efforts of individuals. In this way, retributivism and meritocracy serve as moral justification, respectively, to punish those who transgress group solidarity and for those who have reached the top in an unequal society to believe that they are fully deserving of their success. Free will is valued in both scenarios. To verify the hypothesis put forward, empirical research was carried out that analyzed the possible correlations between the belief in free will, the legitimacy of economic inequality – and indirectly in meritocracy – and income redistribution, all of which were analyzed only at the individual level. An increase in belief in the legitimacy of economic inequality was found to be significantly associated with an increase in belief in free will. Furthermore, a greater belief in the legitimacy of economic inequality is significantly associated with a reduction in the belief that measures should be taken to redistribute income.