Cachet diffuses along association chains but evaporates under lower-class adoption

Evidence

The fact that cachet arises through associations with certain individuals and groups means that it can travel across “chains” of associations. When European elites fell in love with Russian ballet at the turn of the twentieth century, everything Russian took on cachet, including the borzoi breed of dogs. Status symbols gain value when associated with elites, but may also lose that value once associated with lower-status groups instead. Too much usage among non-elites, writes Adam Smith, means a status symbol “loses all the grace which it had appeared to possess before, and being now used only by the inferior ranks of people, seems to have something of their meanness and awkwardness.” In the late 1950s the British rock ’n’ roll singer Cliff Richard made black shirts with white ties stylish for a brief moment; then their quick uptake by mobsters and demimonde touts turned them into an obvious mark of lower social position. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 212

Categorization

• CANDY: The Cliff Richard black-shirt-with-white-tie story collapsing into mobster fashion is a light, self-contained anecdote.
• XREF: connects to: CRED-backed belief spreads via transmission advantage and outcompetes rival groups — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 335; Identification potency declines as group categories grow more inclusive but can be situationally revived — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 425; A prominent member’s impact shifts with group size even at constant ratios — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 3196 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Ingroup attachment strength declines as category size grows, though context can reverse this. #corroborates (0.82) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 425
• Cooperative generosity cascades through social networks and triples in effect. #expands (0.80) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1764
• Identification potency declines as group categories grow more inclusive but can be situationally revived #corroborates (0.78) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 425
• A prominent member’s impact shifts with group size even at constant ratios #expands (0.75) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 3196
• CRED-backed belief spreads via transmission advantage and outcompetes rival groups #qualifies (0.72) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 335
• The internet’s many-to-many ideal collapsed into a many-to-one structure #exemplifies (0.72) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 175