Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Department
Sociology
First Advisor
Matthew E. Brashers
Abstract
Part of the human experience is the creation and consumption of culture. Because of this, over the course of evolution humans adapted cognitive resources for the identification and development of cultural objects in social environments. These objects are so essential to human interactions that they are integrated into social structures and assumptions are made about individuals that possess them. For example, an individual’s cultural consumption habits are used to draw conclusions about their education, merit, or fundamental worth and status. Utilizing music as a cultural object, I argue that individuals use the concept of Status as a cognitive shortcut during interaction, compressing complex information about music into a single dimension. I also propose that Status’s function as a cognitive shortcut has consequences for the success of music genres in terms of gaining consumers and maintaining investment in its consumption and cultural relevance. This dissertation utilizes a series of 3 studies to test 2 theories and a theory expansion that explore how Status is tied to music genres, and how Status shapes the consumption of music genres by individuals of different races, ages, levels of education, and political ideology.
This dissertation also utilizes two datasets, the Survey for Public Participation in the Arts and the Cultural Objects – Music survey, a dataset that is part of a wider series of Cultural Objects datasets. This dissertation also utilizes the Hybrid Blau Space model, novel simulation method that joins together agent-based and ecological models. Results from these studies provide support for the argument that Status acts as a form of compressed information about music, and that differences in race, age, education, and political ideology influence how individuals perceive the status and value of music genres. Finally, support is found for the argument that Status increases the competitive success of music genres in terms of gaining consumers and maintaining investment.
Rights
© 2025, Nicolas LeRoy Harder
Recommended Citation
Harder, N. L.(2025). Heuristics and Cultural Competition: How the Status of Cultural Objects Are Formed and Status Influences Competition. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/8571