Dissecting Taste Distinction

Cultural Tastes and Perceptions of Individuals’ Status and Qualities

Bibliographic Data

ID17826249
AuthorsMorten Hedegaard Larsen (0000-0002-8823-1705), Mikkel Larsen, M Jæger M (0000-0003-3666-8398), Mads Meier Jæger, Mads Jæger
Year2026
Volume13
Pages501-527
Publication date2026-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociological Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2330-6696 • E-ISSN: 2330-6696
PublisherSociety for Sociological Science (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.15195/v13.a20
OpenAlexW7157603059
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited114

A rich literature in sociology argues that familiarity with legitimate culture creates favorable perceptions of individuals’ status and qualities, which in turn yield privilege. Yet, it remains unclear which tastes affect what perceptions by how much. To address these important questions, we designed a survey experiment in Denmark that “dissects” and quantifies the effect of individuals’ tastes across six taste domains (music, food, performing arts, leisure, sport, and literature) on perceptions of status and qualities. Ignoring taste domains, we find that an individual whose taste profile in general includes more legitimate tastes is perceived more favorably in terms of status and qualities but less favorably in terms of sociability. Dissecting taste distinction by domain, we find that tastes in music and food have the strongest effect on perceptions, whereas tastes in other domains have little effect. Finally, we find that the substantive (and not just statistical) effect of tastes is large with regard to perceptions of cultural sophistication and sociability but small with regard to perceptions of social rank, earnings, and respectability. Overall, our results show that not all taste domains matter equally, legitimate tastes elicit both positive and negative perceptions, and tastes are powerful signals

Affect (linguistics) · Field (mathematics) · Perception · Sophistication · Style (visual arts) · Taste · Cultural Differences and Values · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Power and Status Dynamics

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access