How adoption speed affects the abandonment of cultural tastes
Berger and Le Mens, PNAS 106(20), 2009, 8146-8150. More than 100 years of first-name data from France and the United States: tastes adopted quickly tended to die out sooner. Individual level: expecting parents hesitated to choose names that had recently surged in popularity. Authors attribute this to concern about symbolic value (fads viewed negatively, rapidly rising identity-relevant options avoided as expected to be short-lived). Ancillary analyses suggest quickly adopted cultural products reach lower cumulative adoption overall; offered as an alternative to saturation-based explanations.
Berger and Le Mens, PNAS 106(20), 2009, 8146-8150. More than 100 years of first-name data from France and the United States: tastes adopted quickly tended to die out sooner. Individual level: expecting parents hesitated to choose names that had recently surged in popularity. Authors attribute this to concern about symbolic value (fads viewed negatively, rapidly rising identity-relevant options avoided as expected to be short-lived). Ancillary analyses suggest quickly adopted cultural products reach lower cumulative adoption overall; offered as an alternative to saturation-based explanations.
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Berger, J., & Le Mens, G. (2009). How adoption speed affects the abandonment of cultural tastes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(20), 8146-8150. doi:10.1073/pnas.0812647106 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0812647106