Abstract

The opinions and beliefs of adolescents regarding success at work constitute a relevant psychosocial context to identify evidence of ideological effects, since they refer to the expectations and planning of activities that will insert or insert each person in the social space of the relationships with production means. The study has assessed opinion indicators on success at work from the 2013 Uberlandia Students’ Social Perceptions Survey (Perseu), carried out with 736 secondary school students from three schools. Data analysis consisted in descriptive statistics of opinions through frequency crosstabs from family income and mother education strata, as well as multiple correspondence analysis. Results indicated a consensus trend in the sample concerning meritocracy as a ruling principle to ensure success at work and higher agreement from lower income and education strata with opinions recommending the obedience to bosses and firm norms. Discussion focuses on the ideological naturalization process and its relationship with social consensus and aims at explaining the opinion profile of disadvantaged strata by means of psychological trends of system justification and rational assessment of life possibilities.

Ideology; Work; Meritocracy; Adolescents; Opinions