How heterogeneity in cultural tastes is captured by psychological factors: a study of reading fiction

Abstract

In Bourdieu's view (Bourdieu, P., 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Routledge, London), the habitus coordinates cultural tastes within each social class and leads to a homogeneity of preferences. In this paper it is argued that besides socioeconomic characteristics, psychological variables, i.e., attitudes, motivations, and ability, affect cultural tastes to a substantial degree. The question this paper addresses is whether in explaining preferences for reading material of varying complexity, the use of psychological variables increases the variance explained by the model and negatively affects the explanatory power of social class (operationalized as educational level). The results of an empirical study ( N=170) indicated that reading attitude, motivation to read, and ability to read had an effect on the tendency to read complex fiction independently of the effect of social class. The explanatory power of social class decreased when variables measuring the motivation to read or ability to read were added to the model.