This presentation on lifestyle distinction(s) will argue that lifestyles enhance inequality by signaling where you belong, who you are, and how you differ from others.
This talk by Mads Meier Jæger is the 3rd session of the 2023-2024 DIGCLASS seminar series.
Live webstreaming will be available from this page next Tuesday, December 19th, from 15.00h.
- social inequality | socially disadvantaged class | occupational status | consumption
- Tuesday 19 December 2023, 15:00 - 16:00 (CET)
- Online only
- Live streaming available
Practical information
- When
- Tuesday 19 December 2023, 15:00 - 16:00 (CET)
- Where
- Online only
- Languages
- English
- Organisers
- Joint Research Centre
- Part of
- Website
- Link to the session
- Social media links
Description
Lifestyle Distinction(s) and Inequality: An Experimental Approach
Models of cultural stratification in sociology highlight highbrow vs. lowbrow (e.g., opera vs. heavy metal) and omnivore vs. univore lifestyles (i.e., broad vs. narrow tastes) as crucial factors that shape social distinction. Yet, we still do not know much about how lifestyles create distinction, defined as perceptions of socioeconomic position (SEP) and personal traits (e.g., competence and taste) that lead to preferential treatment and discrimination. To fill this gap, we conducted two vignette experiments to examine the effect of lifestyles on perceptions of SEP and personal traits. First, both experiments show that people associate a highbrow or an omnivorous lifestyle with higher SEP than a lowbrow or a univorous lifestyle. The substantive effect of lifestyle is large and comparable to that of ethnic and occupational status. Second, people associate a highbrow or an omnivorous lifestyle with better personal traits than a lowbrow or a univore lifestyle, for example better taste, competence, and sociability. Third, the variance in people’s ratings of SEP, a measure of the certainty with which they link lifestyles to SEP, is lower when comparing a highbrow to a lowbrow lifestyle and an omnivorous to a univorous lifestyle. This result suggests that a highbrow or an omnivorous lifestyle demarcates social boundaries more clearly than a lowbrow and a univore lifestyle. The results corroborate theoretical arguments that lifestyles enhance inequality by signaling where you belong, who you are, and how you differ from others.
Speaker
Mads Meier Jæger is Professor of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen. His research interests include social stratification and mobility, lifestyles, and physical attractiveness. He has published on these topics in journals such as American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and Sociological Science.
DIGCLASS Seminar Series
The DIGCLASS seminar series is expected to facilitate the exchange of cutting-edge ideas and debates related to social inequality, labour economics and political economy between JRC researchers and beyond by attracting external scholars, policy-makers and a general audience.
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