The psychology of distinction: How cultural tastes shape perceptions of class and competence in the U.S.✰

Abstract

This article investigates the contemporary meaning and value of traditional highbrow taste in the United States. Hypotheses rooted in cultural capital theory and social psychology are tested in a nationally representative survey experiment. The results of the experiment are threefold. First, signals of traditional highbrow taste have a positive, cumulative effect on perceptions of social class and competence, while signals of traditional lowbrow taste have a negative, cumulative effect on perceptions of class but not competence. Second, the effect of signals of taste on perceptions of social class is the primary pathway through which signals of traditional highbrow taste shape perceptions of competence. Third, the effect of signals of taste on social perceptions varies across cultural domains and according to respondent gender and social class. Results suggest that traditional hierarchies of taste can persist even as elite patterns of taste change.