Economics education: literacy or mind framing? Evidence from a survey on the social building of trust in Portugal

Abstract

Does studying economics have an effect on molding the values and attitudes embodying the trust-building processes of a democratic society? Mainstream economics teaching, based on the self-interest model of rational, maximizing, individualistic “representative agent”, may well cause indoctrinating effects, creating or reinforcing political free-marketeering, as well as selfishness values, attitudes, and behaviors among economics students. In this paper a contribution is made for these discussions, based on the results of a survey performed in Portugal in three years (2006, 2009, and 2012) addressed to a considerably diverse sample of respondents (economics students, other students, and common citizens).