Buying money : indebted´s profile and causal attributions by consumers, bank managers and financial educators in credit use

The global economic crisis of 2008 gave problems related to credit use a major focus. However, research still focus more on macroeconomic analyses of the phenomenon, while little is known about its sociopsychological aspects. Brazil has one of the highest interest rates in the world, which can be seen both as a cause and as a consequence of an alarming cenario of consumer debt. This thesis is structured in two manuscripts that investigated different phenomena of debt by credit use. Manuscript 1 describes the analysis of a database (n = 1,581) of a consulting and financial education firm that offers online workshops. The objective of the research was to profile indebted and non-indebted consumers, based on several sociopsychological variables. In addition to a high frequency of spending more than or total income, low frequency of personal investments and (ab)use of credit cards, categorical tests revealed that performing some sort of financial control is associated with not having debt, making investments and having more assets. Age was not relevant in these behaviors and women reported more debt than men. The discussion deals, therefore, with the practical and methodological issues involving strategic planning and financial control through financial education, but also self-regulation of behavior to cope with market arrangements that favor indebt. Manuscript 2 was planned in the form of three studies that investigated causal attributions of debt by banks managers who sell or refinance loans (n = 210), by consumers (n = 390) and by consultants and financial educators (n = 82). Instruments involved constructing a measure of attitudes on credit use and debt, a measure of reasons for indebt, and items for selfand other-attributions. Factor analyses showed that potential debt explanations are often organized in two factors, confirming hypotheses related to locus of control and stability, by such models as Weiner's. Results revealed systematic asymmetries between the samples. Managers and consultants assigned consumer debt causes to internal factors, by assume that consumers blame external factors. On the other hand, consumers blame external factors for their debts, while perceive internal causes for the debts of others. These trends are interpreted in light of common biases in social cognition. Results and their implications are discussed in the context of the transformative research movement, by focusing on the benefits to consumer welfare.