The taboo against selling out sustained artistic experimentation through social rewards.

Evidence

Obviously, the Mafia is an odd role model for cultural renewal, but the same logic powered the highly productive twentieth-century taboo against selling out. Artists and subcultures enforced strong norms against commercialism, steering younger creators away from internalizing market goals. Experimentation rarely pays in the short term, so social rewards—status, respect, admiration—became critical for sustaining artists on the path of invention. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 856

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Feeds the ‘death of the sellout’ mechanism central to the reader’s stated reading purpose, and parallels the codes-of-honor logic in the sacrifice article’s framing.
• XREF: Crosses with Milgrom’s finding that reputation-based social rewards (‘forfeitable bonds’) sustain honesty where direct economic incentives fail.