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Good coffee, bad coffee: the curious tastes of cultural omnivores
This is an excerpt of an article written for The Conversation by Zeynep Arsel, associate professor, Marketing and Concordia University Research Chair in Consumption, Markets and Society and Anissa Pomiès, professeur assistant de Marketing, EM Lyon Business School.
Some people who love classical music also dance to Celine Dion. Others are craft beer aficionados who also enjoy a cold bottle of mass market beer at the beach. Some love independent movies while indulging in the guilty pleasure of blockbuster franchises and “trashy” reality TV.
Social scientists call these people “cultural omnivores.” Research has shown that these omnivores are economically and culturally privileged people who can enjoy both “highbrow” and “lowbrow” cultural products simultaneously.
As consumer researchers, we’ve looked into the phenomenon of cultural omnivores. We’ve studied coffee consumption in France for 7 years. That’s helped us understand how people develop their omnivorous tastes.
