The Role of Values as Mediator in Relationships Between Social Position and Cultural Omnivorousness in Germany

Abstract Research on cultural omnivorousness—the concept conceptualized originally as the ability to expand one’s cultural preferences—continues to grow in prominence in studies of the cultural dimension of social stratification. Given recent inconsistent empirical findings, this study returned to the origins of the concept and examined the role of values in developing omnivorous cultural taste. Based on the example of Germany and relying on data from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS/GGSS) in 2014, this study empirically examined the indirect effect of social position on cultural omnivorousness via postmaterialistic values using structural equation modeling. The findings suggest that postmaterialist values could be mediators; a higher position in the social structure implied a higher likelihood to hold postmaterialist values, which led to higher cultural omnivorousness. The indicators of social position were also analyzed separately, given that the explanatory power of educational attainment in predicting cultural omnivorousness was approximately the same as that of occupational characteristics. The proportion of the relationship mediated by values did not differ significantly in models with education or occupational characteristics as predictors of cultural omnivorousness.