State-Centric Persistence: Pursuing Social Welfare Benefits in Brazil

Abstract

Gaining and maintaining access to government-run social welfare programs often requires significant and sustained effort by potential beneficiaries. Why do some eligible individuals persist in their pursuit of welfare benefits while others do not? In this paper, we provide a psychological theory of state-centric persistence. We argue that three attitudes—entitlement, indignation, and self-efficacy—decrease the psychological costs of interacting with the state and affect citizens' behavior vis-à-vis the state. In an original survey in Brazil, we ask respondents about the likelihood they would engage in state-centric persistence in the pursuit of social benefits and develop novel measures of entitlement, indignation, and self-efficacy in the domain of social policy. We provide evidence that these attitudes strongly correlate with state-centric persistence and that this relationship is stronger than their relationship with other actions. These findings show that government responsiveness can vary with the attitudes of the individuals seeking government services.