Attendance at Museums and Live Theaters: Ethnic Disparities in Highbrow Out-of-the-House Leisure Consumption in Houston

• In Event: 383 - Section on Consumers and Consumption Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. Stratification and Consumption

Abstract

In this study, I examine whether there are any significant ethnic disparities in the attendance at museums and live theaters in Houston as experiences of highbrow out-of-the-house leisure consumption. My purpose is to analyze whether minority individuals, particularly immigrants and their descendants, compensate their relative disadvantages, and support the appreciation of multicultural diversity as a legitimate norm by consuming highbrow leisure experiences. I use data from the Houston Area Survey and sequential logistic regression models to examine these differences after controlling for socioeconomic status, sex, age, and other relevant characteristics. I found that the odds of frequently attending at museums and live theaters are lower for Anglos compared with non-Anglos, and higher for U.S.-born individuals with at least one foreign parent compared with U.S.-born individuals with U.S.-born parents. These findings reveal that the audiences of out-of-the-house highbrow leisure activities in Houston are already characterized by a noteworthy ethnic diversity.

Author

• Cristian Luis Paredes, University of Texas-Austin