Why “cultural matters” matter: Culture talk as the mobilization of cultural capital in interaction

Abstract

In this paper, I provide evidence for the substantive relevance of a phenomenon that has been argued to be crucial in connecting cultural inequalities to stratification outcomes: “culture talk,” or the use of popular culture and the arts as conversation subjects with friends and acquaintances. In spite of its theoretical importance, this outcome has not received much empirical attention. To address this gap, I document the socio-demographic correlates of culture talk using survey data from a probability sample of Americans. I report three main findings. First, culture talk frequency across five culture consumption domains is stratified by socioeconomic status, primarily be education and secondarily by income, net of self-reported culture-consumption frequency. Second, the socioeconomic status effect on culture talk is strongest for those who are most culturally active. Finally, engagement in traditionally high status cultural pursuits (e.g. the fine arts) is a better predictor of culture talk across all domains than consumption in less class stratified domains (e.g. movies). I close by elaborating the theoretical and substantive implication of these results.