High status now correlates with breadth of cultural consumption rather than with exclusive attachment to high culture.
Peterson and Kern documented in 1992 that higher-status Americans reported liking more genres, including popular ones, than lower-status respondents. The distinction has moved from what one consumes to how much range one can display, which is a form of capital that requires the same resources and is harder to identify as exclusion.
In practice
- An executive who can discuss opera and grime is displaying access, not eclecticism.
- A candidate penalised for narrow taste is being assessed on something no job description mentions.