Prestige and Homophily: The Interactional Advantages of Cultural Tastes

• In Event: 545 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtable Session.
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 09. Cultural Capital II

Abstract

The sociological significance of cultural tastes rests on their ability to produce boundaries and hierarchy between social groups. Only a small portion of the previous work on cultural tastes has investigated whether tastes can indeed act as symbolic resources by giving people advantages in interaction. The present research builds on this research and clarifies the mechanisms by which cultural tastes can sort people in interaction. We use data from 775 participants in seven online experiments and one in-person experiment to investigate two important cultural taste patterns, highbrow and culturally omnivorous tastes. We find evidence that both taste patterns are consequential symbolic resources, but the advantage they offer in interaction is different. Highbrow tastes are considered a signal of prestige, but cultural omnivorousness is not. Cultural omnivorousness has not simply replaced highbrow tastes as the new cultural marker of prestige. On the other hand, we find strong evidence that homophily occurs on the basis of shared cultural tastes—participants find those with similar cultural tastes to be more attractive work partners. This suggests that cultural omnivores, if they deploy their broad repertoire of tastes strategically in interaction, have the ability to engage with a large number of willing interaction partners. These findings shed light on recent trends in highbrow and culturally omnivorous tastes and help us theorize about the role of culture in stratification.

Authors

• Matthew Stimpson, University of California-Berkeley

• Sandra Kai Nakagawa, Stanford University