Doctoral Dissertation Research: Peer Influence and Aesthetic Taste

博士论文研究：同伴影响和审美趣味这个项目将研究人们的意见如何受到他们对他人想法的评估的影响。这项研究有助于文化社会学的经典文献，并将其应用于当代艺术欣赏的案例研究。 该项目采用实验方法。 具体来说，一项对2,250名成年受访者的调查要求他们对一幅特定的绘画发表两次意见，一次是在收到一个假设的参考群体成员所表达的意见的信息之前，一次是在收到这些信息之后。 这些信息如何改变受访者自己的意见的变化将使我们能够评估我们的审美品味和意见在多大程度上反映了我们从事所谓的“象征性边界工作”的努力。“一个中心假设是，受访者的品味表达不仅是他们自己的社会地位的函数，正如许多其他研究所证明的那样，而且也是试图在自己和他人之间或周围画出象征性界限的函数，以及对他人的了解。品味将是这种边界工作的重要预测因素。 更广泛的影响：该项目旨在通过调查人们对艺术品的看法如何反映更大的社会分层动态来研究文化与不平等之间的联系。 这项研究的结果可能不仅对学者感兴趣，而且对参与艺术生产和保护的公共和非政府组织感兴趣。调查结果也可能影响艺术教育计划和相关形式的社区外展。 该项目的数据将以电子方式提供。

SES-1203426Omar LizardoSara SkilesUniversity of Notre DameAbstractDoctoral Dissertation Research: Peer Influence and Aesthetic TasteThis project will examine how people's opinions influenced by their assessment of what other people think. The study contributes to a classic literature in the sociology of culture and applies it to a contemporary case study involving art appreciation. The project employs experimental methods. Specifically, a survey of 2,250 adult respondents requests their opinion of a particular painting twice, once before and once after receiving information about the opinions expressed by members of a hypothetical reference group. Variation in how such information changes the respondents' own opinions will enable us to assess the degree to which our aesthetic taste and opinions reflect efforts to engage in what is known as "symbolic boundary work." A central hypothesis is that respondents' taste expressions will be a function not only of their own social position, as has been demonstrated in numerous other studies, but also of attempts to draw symbolic boundaries between or around themselves and others, and that knowledge of others? tastes will be a significant predictor of such boundary work. Broader impacts: The project is designed to examine the connection between culture and inequality by investigating how people's opinions of art objects reflect larger social stratification dynamics. Findings from this study may be of interest not only to scholars, but to public and non-governmental organizations involved in art production and conservation. Findings may also influence art education programs and related forms of community outreach. Data from this project will be made publically available.