Behavioral Stratification

Behavioral stratification refers to the ways in which social hierarchies are expressed, organized, and reproduced through differences in conduct, lifestyle, taste, and habits, so that people are ranked and judged according to how they behave as well as what they own. It is not a standard technical term, but it draws on established ideas about the link between inequality and cultural practice. Max Weber argued that status groups are defined by distinctive styles of life and by the honor attached to them, while Thorstein Veblen’s theory of the leisure class showed how conspicuous consumption signals rank. Pierre Bourdieu’s analysis of distinction demonstrated that tastes in food, art, speech, and leisure are classified and ranked, and that dominant groups present their habits as legitimate. Annette Lareau found that middle-class and working-class families raise children through different practices that later translate into unequal advantage. Michele Lamont examined symbolic boundaries through which groups evaluate the morality and behavior of others. Critics note that judging behavior can stigmatize disadvantaged groups and disguise structural causes of inequality. Behavioral stratification remains useful for analyzing class, status, cultural capital, and the moral evaluation of the poor.