Brazilians have prejudices, but are among the most tolerant populations of the world. This is one of the conclusions you can draw from the graphs produced by the World Values Society. It is a worldwide network of social scientists that study changing values and their impact on social and political life. They have been conducting surveys in 97 countries since 1981.
In one of their latest studies, they asked people all over the world about their tolerance towards their neighbors. The following percentage of Brazilian respondents said they wouldn’t like to live close to:
- People who speak a different language: 9.1% (US – 11.1%, Great-Britain – 6.3%)
- People of a different race: 5.3% (US – 4.1%, Great-Britain – 5.4%)
- Immigrants/foreign workers: 8.1% (US – 13.2%, Great-Britain – 15.9%)
- People of a different religion: 7% (US – 2.6%, Great-Britain – 2.1%)
- Homosexuals: 26.1% (US – 26%, Great-Britain – 18.8%)
- Unmarried people living together: 7.1% (US – 8.4%, Great-Britain – 2.3%)
- People who have Aids: 17.8% (US – 15.9%, Great-Britain – 13.6%)
- Drug addicts: 82.2% (US – 93.8%, Great-Britain – 94.4%)
- Heavy drinkers: 60.4% (US – 72.9%, Great-Britain – 67.8%)
In all of the scenarios, Brazilians were among the most tolerant or, at least, in the average group. But it is sad to see that the rejection of gays is still very high. If you want to check the statistics for other countries, just click here.