Theories of cultural stratification argue that a widely shared cultural hierarchy legitimizes status differences and inequality. Yet, we know little about this hierarchy empirically. To address this limitation, we collected survey data in Denmark and asked respondents to rate the implied social rank of 60 activities, genres, and objects belonging to six lifestyle domains (music, food, performing arts, leisure, sport, and literature). We use ratings of social rank to infer about the cultural hierarchy, arguing that higher ratings imply higher perceived status. First, respondents link activities often considered highbrow (e.g., opera, caviar, and golf) with higher social rank than activities often considered lowbrow (e.g., heavy metal, nuggets, and boxing), suggesting that a cultural hierarchy exists. Second, ratings of implied social rank differ little by respondents’ objective and subjective socioeconomic position, suggesting that the cultural hierarchy is widely shared. Third, respondents bundle the 60 activities in a perceived highbrow, middlebrow, and lowbrow lifestyle, suggesting that “brows” are salient in distinguishing lifestyles. Overall, our results support the idea that a cultural hierarchy exists.

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文化分层理论认为，广泛共享的文化等级使地位差异和不平等合法化。然而，我们从经验上对这种层次结构知之甚少。为了解决这一局限性，我们收集了丹麦的调查数据，并要求受访者对属于六个生活方式领域（音乐、美食、表演艺术、休闲、体育和文学）的 60 种活动、流派和物品的隐含社会排名进行评分。我们使用社会等级的评级来推断文化等级，认为较高的评级意味着较高的感知地位。首先，受访者将通常被认为高雅的活动（例如歌剧、鱼子酱和高尔夫）与通常被认为低俗的活动（例如重金属、掘金和拳击）相比具有更高的社会等级联系起来，这表明存在文化等级制度。其次，隐含社会等级的评级因受访者的客观和主观社会经济地位而异，这表明文化等级是广泛共享的。第三，受访者将 60 项活动与所感知的高雅、中雅和低雅生活方式捆绑在一起，这表明“眉毛”在区分生活方式方面很重要。总的来说，我们的结果支持文化等级制度存在的观点。

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