Preaching to the Choir: Cues of Quality and Cultural Consumer Behavior

This article studies the impact of quality signals from cultural intermediaries. Who gets to establish what is good taste? And who aligns their cultural behavior? Using population-wide administrative data on library loans in Denmark linked with information on literary awards and reviews, and a difference-in-differences design, I compare loans before and after an award/review, using shortlisted and books yet-to-receive awards/reviews as controls. Quality signals from cultural intermediaries significantly increase loans, especially among individuals with high levels of cultural capital. This challenges the emphasis on the detached aesthetic dispositions of the cultural elite in Bourdieu’s theory on cultural distinction. Second, higher cultural legitimacy does not increase signal impact. This questions the assumption that cultural intermediaries mobilize cultural legitimacy to consecrate cultural products. An equally important function of cultural intermediaries might be to inform and engage receptive audiences. The findings provide new insights into how signals from cultural intermediaries affect (whose) behavior.