Knowledge is money: Do people think cultural capital can be transformed into economic value?

Abstract

Cultural capital is defined as the accumulation of knowledge, behaviors, and skills that a person can tap into to demonstrate one's cultural competence and social status (Bourdieu, 1986). Cultural capital has been well-understood in social sciences such as sociology and economics for the past decades. Little research has examined the psychological antecedences and consequences of cultural capital at the individual level. Our current work seeks to provide empirical evidence to support the claim that cultural capital (embodied, objective, and institutionalized) can be transformed into economic value. Using a 3 × 3 × 2 (Cultural Capital Conditions × Behavioral Agents × Frames) mixed experimental design, our data showed that under the gain frame rather than the loss frame, the property of people with cultural capital was judged higher than those pretending to have cultural capital, but without real knowledge. Interestingly, this pattern of results only holds true under the embodied cultural capital condition, but did not hold true under the objectified and institutionalized cultural capital conditions.