The aim of this article was to ascertain how university students in north and northeastern Brazil view human rights (HR) and the relationship between this variable, institutional attitudes, and ideological sympathies as well as the geographical region in which they live. There were 832 student participants of both sexes that completed a questionnaire measuring their judgments on 30 rights, 15 institutions, and 10 political ideas. A principal components analysis revealed five factors. Results from multiple regression analysis indicated that institutional attitudes and ideological sympathies may have influenced their views on HR, with the geographic region predictive of the right to social protest. These findings are in line with those from other studies and were examined within the framework of psychosociological theory.
human rights; institutional attitudes; ideological sympathies
