What your habits reveal about social class

[Redneck]

If you’ve ever changed the radio station when stopped at the traffic lights or pretended to have read George Orwell’s 1984, you already have some idea that your cultural tastes betray something deeper about who you are.

New research from the Australian Cultural Fields project — one of the most detailed investigations into how cultural tastes and lifestyles connect with privilege in Australia — sheds light on what that might be.

The findings, to be published later this year, reveal how strongly our cultural tastes — such as the books we read, the music we like, the TV shows we watch, and so on — align with characteristics like class, education, age and gender.

More than that, the research shows that cultural privilege is often passed from generation to generation — a finding with all the more importance at a time of widening class inequality in Australia.

So, are your tastes upper class or working class? Middle-age or teenage? For a light-hearted look at how your cultural tastes compare, take our quiz, based on the project’s results. (You’ll need around 6 minutes.)

And don’t worry, your answers are not linked to your identity, nor will they be stored or passed on to anyone else.

The quiz contains a fraction of the questions put to a nationally-representative sample of more than 1200 Australians as part of the Australian Cultural Fields project, funded by the Australian Research Council.

The survey asked participants around 200 questions about their tastes and activities in the visual arts, sport, heritage, literature, music and television. It also gathered detailed information about participants’ personal characteristics, such as income, occupation, education, housing and assets — even the work and education characteristics of parents and partners.

A team of researchers from Western Sydney University, the University of Queensland, New York University and the University Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile, then calculated how strongly each of these hundreds of variables connected to one another.

Turns out that whether you rock out to Madonna, can’t stand Jane Austen or binge watch Grand Designs or Game of Thrones (or have never heard of either) is largely shaped by factors that have nothing to do with how cool you are.

How class and culture fit together

“The strongest drivers in taste are occupation and education,” Tony Bennett, project director and research professor in social and cultural theory at Western Sydney University, said.

So, the higher your class, the more “highbrow” your tastes are likely to be.

Read it all and do the quiz here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-13/w ... ss/9610658

[Malcolm_hates_your_kids]

Chas from the Chaser was on the Drum last night saying that many news readers change their accent in Australia to get the gig: proof of class systems and therefore class warfare in Austalia!

He reckons upper crusty middclass tryhard tuppys can pretend no one cares about class in Australia all they want but the proof is on prime time tv!

Hence, a shite sandwich being served to the kids of Australia whenever the Liberal Party gets elected i.e. copper internet!

[Nom De Plume]

Your cultural tastes are most similar to a middle class woman, aged 60+ with a postgraduate education.

Pfft.... I'm 50!

[BigP]

I had to dumb down a little to pass off as Australian lol

But this is what it came back with ,


...."""Your cultural tastes are most similar to a working class man, aged 25-39 with a vocational education."""

[BigP]

Your cultural tastes are most similar to a middle class woman, aged 60+ with a postgraduate education.

Pfft.... I'm 50!

Are you telling us that you are 50 and male ?

[Nom De Plume]

Your cultural tastes are most similar to a middle class woman, aged 60+ with a postgraduate education.

Pfft.... I'm 50!

Are you telling us that you are 50 and male ?

Logic is not your strong suit... good to know.

[BigP]

Your cultural tastes are most similar to a middle class woman, aged 60+ with a postgraduate education.

Pfft.... I'm 50!

Are you telling us that you are 50 and male ?

Logic is not your strong suit... good to know.

To be quite frank, I have never found it to be one of live and die by tenets of any MB I have been on lol

[Malcolm_hates_your_kids]

I had to dumb down a little to pass off as Australian lol

But this is what it came back with ,


...."""Your cultural tastes are most similar to a working class man, aged 25-39 with a vocational education."""

If you aren't Australian then what are you doing on this forum?

[Malcolm_hates_your_kids]

Your cultural tastes are most similar to a middle class woman, aged 60+ with a postgraduate education.

Pfft.... I'm 50!

Are you telling us that you are 50 and male ?

Logic is not your strong suit... good to know.

He's not Australian!