Education level, not wealth or social status, is the reason why middle-class people are more likely to play music, paint, or take up acting as either an amateur or professional, researchers from Oxford University reported in the latest edition of the journal Sociology.
As part of the study, Dr. Aaron Reeves, a sociologist at the British university, surveyed more than 78,000 people and found that 18 percent of those individuals had participated in painting or photography, 10 percent were involved in music, 9 percent in dance, and 2 percent in drama or opera. Six percent had written poetry, plays, or fiction, and 22 percent were involved in no artistic activities.
He also found that having a higher income did not make participation any more likely, as those earning more than £30,000 ($46,000) a year were less likely be involved in artistic endeavors than people who earned less. Similarly, social status was unimportant, as high-level professionals were less likely to be artists, writers, or musicians than those in lower white-collar positions.
The strongest indicator of artistic activity, however, was educational background, as a person with a degree was about four times more likely to participate in painting and photography than those who had not graduated from college, as well as five times more likely to be involved in dance and crafts, and four times more likely to be able to play a musical instrument.
Wealth, social status not reliable indicators of arts participation
The research, which accounted for the influence of a family’s class background by statistical analysis, also found that those most likely to be regularly involved in the arts tended to be from the middle class, largely because they were more likely to be highly educated, Dr. Reeves said.
However, as he explained in a statement, the findings indicate that even though having a middle class background made it more likely that a person will have attended a university, they are still no more likely to take part in the arts after graduation than students from the working class.
“Arts participation, unlike arts consumption and cultural engagement generally, is not closely associated with either social class or social status,” Dr. Reeves explained. “This result deviates from the expectation – unexpectedly, those with higher incomes are less likely to be arts participants. These results show that it is educational attainment alone, and not social status, that is shaping the probability of being an arts participant.”
He added that there are two possible reasons for this link: “First… university graduates are more likely to possess the cultural resources necessary for both arts consumption and arts participation. Second, universities make admissions decisions using information on extracurricular and cultural activities, increasing the likelihood that university graduates are culturally active.”
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