Class dis-identification, cultural stereotypes, and music preferences: Experimental evidence from the UK

Abstract

Do people change their cultural preferences in social interactions where social class is particularly salient? Although previous research has assumed, or been unable to test, whether preferences vary across interactions, we argue that the 'cultural politics of class' may provide a context in which individuals alter cultural preferences depending on the specifics of a particular social interaction. Using a lab-based split-ballot experiment in a research university in the East of England (n = 300), we examine changes in preferences toward music genres depending on whether respondents are assigned to one of three treatment conditions: 1) a vignette describing someone who is working class, 2) a vignette describing someone who is middle class or 3) no vignette. Those born in the UK alter the strength of their preferences toward highbrow music genres when social class is made more salient. When the salience of class is increased it also activates particular cultural stereotypes and these stereotypes also influence the strength of respondents' preferences toward highbrow music genres. This mechanism suggests that individuals use cultural stereotypes in social interaction to position themselves and others in the social hierarchy through cultural preferences.

How class identities shape highbrow consumption: A cross-national analysis of 30 European countries and regions

“…This paper moves these debates forward by developing one of the crucial but underexplored insights that have emerged from some of those case studies which have illuminated how highbrow consumption varies across countries. Beyond merely revealing cross-national differences, these case studies have repeatedly stressed the importance of class identities -not just occupation or education -to understanding patterns of highbrow consumption throughout Europe (Pape, Rossel, and Solga 2012;Reeves, Gilbert, and Holman 2015). The centrality of class identities to some domains of social life has declined (e.g., politics) (Evans and Tilley 2012), but I argue class identities have simultaneously become more central to issues of cultural consumption and cultural capital (Devine and Savage 2005).…”

“…Being middle-class, for example, involves not simply an occupational position but evokes a series of tastes and practices commonly ascribed to those groups (Lamont 1992). Vignette studies are able to gesture toward social class identities through describing what people wear, where they eat, and what television shows they watch (Pape et al 2012;Reeves et al 2015). These studies work because class identities entail cultural identities too.…”

“…This ambivalent connection with privileged social positions may also influence whether and how people consume highbrow culture. In an experimental vignette study, Reeves et al (2015) find people are much less likely to express positive preferences for highbrow music once they have been randomly assigned to read a vignette describing a 'working-class' person who they believe would 'dislike' highbrow culture. By contrast, participants who were randomly assigned to read a 'middle-class' vignette were just as likely to express positive preferences toward highbrow music as those who did not read any vignette.…”

“…This process also plays out in experimental settings. British people downplayed their more highbrow tastes when they were exposed to a working-class vignette who they imagined would 'dislike' highbrow culture (Reeves et al 2015). Similarly, high status Americans expressed positive preferences for lowbrow culture when they felt 'insecure' about their high-status position (Hahl et al 2017).…”

“…10 However, re-incorporating class identity into work on class and culture will allow sociologists to elucidate the 'cultural politics of class' (Savage et al 2010), to observe the sites of class-making and the places where classificatory struggles occur (Tyler 2015). The symbolic values of class identity and cultural consumption may be more malleable than other forms of social stratification and so by focusing on class and culture it becomes possible to effectively register the distinctiveness of place in how these processes play out (Reeves et al 2015). One implication which flows from this analysis suggests claiming a middle-class identity and, tied to this, participating in highbrow cultural activities are not straightforwardly convertible into cultural capital in every country.…”