The study was conducted by the Integrity Academy through a survey of 1,012 Hungarian citizens aged 15 to 29. Respondents were asked, among other things, to assess specific case examples for signs of corruption, as well as to answer questions about the prevalence of corruption, its causes, direct and indirect experiences with corrupt practices, willingness to report violations, trust in institutions, and perceptions of the efficiency of the use of EU funds.
One of the study’s central findings is that young Hungarians perceive corruption as one of the most significant problems in the country: according to the survey, it ranked second after price increases, inflation and the cost of living. 70% of respondents believe that corruption is significantly or extremely widespread in Hungary, while 67.1% think that its level has increased over the past five years.
At the same time, the study reveals an ambivalent attitude among young people toward corrupt practices. On the one hand, most respondents were fairly confident in identifying corruption in the situations presented to them: between 79% and 87% of participants classified the case examples as corrupt practices, while 59.2% identified all 11 examples as corruption. On the other hand, intolerance toward certain forms of corruption proved to be lower than the average among young people in the European Union: while 72.8% of respondents considered giving money to obtain an advantage unacceptable, only 52.4% rejected gifts, and 41.8% rejected doing favours or providing “help”.
The authors also draw attention to the relationship between perceptions of corruption and quality of life. According to the study, the less young people feel that corruption affects their everyday lives, the higher they rate their own well-being. In this regard, corruption is viewed not only as a political or economic problem, but also as a factor influencing trust, social engagement and subjective well-being.
The study pays particular attention to direct and indirect experiences with corruption. 17.3% of respondents said that they personally knew individuals, groups or organisations that had accepted illicit favours, gifts or bribes in the course of their work. 11.5% reported that, in the year preceding the survey, an illicit favour, gift or bribe had been expected from them, their relatives or close acquaintances. At the same time, the use of personal connections to expedite matters in public institutions turned out to be a more widespread “grey area”: 18.6% of respondents reported such an experience.
The study also revealed a high level of passivity when encountering corruption. 41.5% of young people said they would do nothing if they encountered a situation involving signs of corruption, while only 13% were able to name an institution or organisation to which they could report corruption. Only 4.1% of respondents had ever reported a suspected case of corruption, and, notably, only half of them said they would be willing to act in the same way again.
Among the main reasons why people do not report corruption, young Hungarians most often cited fear that reporting could put them in a difficult situation (43.1%) and not knowing where exactly to report such cases (39.4%). The authors note that these findings point not only to a lack of information about reporting mechanisms, but also to insufficient confidence in the protection of those willing to report corruption.
Based on the findings, the Integrity Academy concludes that stable educational programmes on anti-corruption are needed. According to the authors, such programmes should combine conventional and interactive formats, include practical case studies, and explain to young people not only how to recognise corruption, but also what role they can play in preventing and detecting it.