Class and the cultural styles applicants present to gatekeepers

Abstract

• Cultural matching theory suggests that class reproduction is alleviated when individuals from different social origins present gatekeepers with the same cultural styles. • Yet, three factors make it likely that individuals from different origins present different styles to gatekeepers: class differences in beliefs about what styles gatekeepers reward, access to those styles, and comfort using them. • Several conditions have the potential to counter these processes, allowing individuals from different class origins to present similar styles: instructions about gatekeepers’ preferences, shared exposure to their preferred styles, the ability to slowly consider what styles to use, and the need to only present styles superficially. • We analyze a novel dataset of over 1,000 randomly selected applications that college students wrote under these conditions. • We find that these conditions are associated with the presentation of several similar styles across applicants from different class origins, but that cultural differences by class remain. Cultural matching theory holds that class reproduction occurs when individuals from different class origins present different cultural styles to gatekeepers, who in turn select advantaged individuals based upon their styles. This theory also suggests that class reproduction will be disrupted if individuals from different origins present gatekeepers with the same styles. We investigate whether this is possible by examining a case in which similarities are particularly likely to occur: a situation in which public instructions give applicants from each class common information about what styles gatekeepers reward, gatekeepers select among applicants from each class who share access to similar styles, and applicants are likely to use the same styles as they are given time to strategize and need only present each style superficially. Drawing upon a content analysis of over 1,000 randomly selected applications that were written under these conditions, we find that individuals from different class origins present several similar styles but that differences remain. We conclude that the simultaneous presence of these conditions is unlikely to block class reproduction by erasing cultural differences.