Mikkel Haderup Larsen, Mads Meier Jæger
Sociological Science April 30, 2026
10.15195/v13.a20
Abstract
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.
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.
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Supplemental Materials
Reproducibility Package: If you wish to reproduce our results, you can access the data set and accompanying R code at https://tinyurl.com/yjm8f9ce. Please be aware that we provide the data set solely for the purpose of reproducing the results we present in the article. You may not use the data set for any other purpose without written consent from the authors.
- Citation: Larsen, Mikkel Haderup, and Mads Meier Jæger. 2026. “Dissecting Taste Distinction: Cultural Tastes and Perceptions of Individuals’ Status and Qualities” Sociological Science 13: 501-527.
- Received: October 10, 2025
- Accepted: January 13, 2026
- Editors: Arnout van de Rijt, Elizabeth Bruch
- DOI: 10.15195/v13.a20