Cultural Consumption: Social Class or Individuality? (A Case Study of Tehran)

Consumption and cultural consumption are among the important phenomena of contemporary society that affect different aspects of people's lives. Many experts consider cultural consumption and consumption to be influenced by and representative of social class. Some studies, especially in the modern world, in addition to class, have considered individual characteristics and individuality to be important determinants of consumption and cultural consumption. The purpose of this research is to examine the amount and type of cultural consumption of citizens of Tehran and the factors affecting it, emphasizing the two above approaches.

The method of this study was a survey, and the data collection instrument was a questionnaire.

The results show that individual characteristics, individuality, and class of people are related to the amount and type of cultural consumption; however, their relationship is different in various cultural goods. In general, these factors have multiple correlations with cultural consumption (R = 0.688) and can explain (R2 = 0.461) the changes in cultural consumption. Most of the weight belongs to cultural tendencies, modern-traditional, and then class variables.

The regression equation confirms the theoretical insight of the paper, which claims that cultural consumption is simultaneously influenced by individual characteristics, individuality, and class of individuals.