The impact of religious identity and social orientations on visual arts appreciation

In this study, visual arts preferences are analysed in a manner that contributes to the field in two ways. First, we include characteristics of respondents that differentiate not so much vertically between those with highbrow versus lowbrow taste (as do, e.g. education and age), but between people with a more traditional versus a more modern taste. We therefore incorporate religious orientation plus six social orientations (utilitarian and expressive individualism, solidarity, communitarianism, social isolation, and social disorientation) in our models. Second, cultural taste is measured in detail by presenting respondents with nine colour plates depicting different visual art styles. These nine evaluations are then reduced to two meaningful dimensions. Based on a Flemish sample of over 2,500 adult respondents, the analyses show clear relations of religious identity and, especially, our set of social orientations with preferences for more traditional versus more modern art styles. Religion and social orientations contribute to the causal explanation of a modern taste in visual art only, proving that such a taste is not just a matter of vertical status differences. Nevertheless, age (for classic/figurative art) and level of education (for modern/abstract art) remain the most important determinants of visual arts appreciation.

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