Traços de personalidade e endividamento real por crédito consignado: evidências empíricas com servidores públicos municipais.

Abstract

Public sector indebtedness, driven by the ease of payroll-deductible credit, demands investigations that integrate economic and behavioral factors. The present study analyzed the relationship between real indebtedness (RI) through payroll-deductible credit and personality traits among public servants, contrasting these results with the attitude towards indebtedness (AI). A quantitative and descriptive study was conducted with 202 servants from the Municipal Department of Water and Sewage (DMAE) in Uberlândia, integrating objective data from institutional reports with data collected via a questionnaire. The analysis involved descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests, and multiple regression models. The results indicated that personality traits did not present a statistically significant association with real indebtedness, which was explained predominantly by sociodemographic factors linked to the life cycle. In contrast, personality showed a significant association with the attitude towards indebtedness, with Extraversion relating to a higher propensity for debt and Conscientiousness to a lower one. Additionally, financial literacy was associated with lower levels of both real debt and psychological predisposition. The study contributes by evidencing that payroll-deductible credit acts as a behavioral neutralization mechanism, where institutional rules and the rigidity of the consignable margin override personality impulses in the materialization of debt, although psychological traits continue to play a relevant role in the predisposition to indebtedness.