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The Omnivore Thesis Revisited: Voracious Cultural Consumers

Article  in  European Sociological Review · December 2006

DOI: 10.1093/esr/jcl024

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 European Sociological Review VOLUME 23 NUMBER 2 2007 123–137 123
DOI:10.1093/esr/jcl024, available online at www.esr.oxfordjournals.org
Online publication 13 December 2006

The Omnivore Thesis Revisited:

Voracious Cultural Consumers
Oriel Sullivan and Tally Katz-Gerro

We augment measures of cultural omnivorousness, based theoretically on the breadth

of cultural tastes, with a new but related dimension of voraciousness. This reflects
a ‘quantitative’ dimension of leisure consumption based upon both the range and the
frequency of leisure participation. Voraciousness is theoretically interpreted in relation to
notions of cultural repertoires, to the changing pace of work and leisure in late modernity,
and to the ‘insatiable’ quality of contemporary consumption. From British time use data,
voraciousness proved to share many relationships found in the analysis of omnivorousness,
for example, with educational qualifications and job’s social status. Moreover, these
relationships persisted over time irrespective of individuals’ time and money resources.
Since voraciousness is associated with high status individuals, and since it is not primarily
about the availability of time or money, we argue that it is a symbolic status marker
associated with notions such as being harried, keeping busy, multitasking, and embracing
a diverse cultural consumption pattern.

Introduction to that of cultural tastes expands the study of

In this article we contribute to the literature on
cultural omnivorousness by introducing to the discus-
sion a new but related dimension of leisure consump-
tion. Since the concept of omnivorousness was first
defined by Peterson and Simkus (1992), research on it
has rested theoretically on the way cultural capital
involves an appreciation of a wide range of cultural
forms, including the fine arts, popular culture, and folk
culture. Accordingly, measures of omnivorousness have
been primarily based on the breadth of cultural tastes.
However, another important dimension of cultural
consumption relates to the frequency of participation
in relevant leisure activities. While there is a growing
literature on omnivorousness within the sociology of
culture, there has been no previous research that
attempts to theoretically locate the frequency of leisure
participation in relation to cultural omnivorousness.
The addition of the dimension of cultural participation
omnivorousness as a phenomenon related not only
to the sociology of culture and consumption but also
to the sociology of work and time, since the money
and time commitments involved in actual leisure
participation (as opposed to reports of cultural tastes
or preferences) entail considerations of money and
time management. Thus we are able to combine two
strands of research, the first of which pertains to the
familiar fields of the sociology of culture and
consumption and highlights concepts such as culture,
tastes, and distinction (Bourdieu, 1984; Peterson,
2005). The second strand, less visible in the omniv-
orous literature to date, pertains to time and to
the changing pace of life and leisure in late modernity
(Linder, 1970; Garhammer, 1998; Gershuny, 2000).
We develop these arguments and present empir-
ical analyses that identify and classify a measure of
the range and frequency of leisure participation
(‘voraciousness’), in relation to the socio-economic

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124 SULLIVAN AND KATZ-GERRO
and cultural indicators that have been commonly
used in the analysis of omnivorousness. We show a
consistent pattern over time in these relationships, and
we situate our findings within the theoretical discus-
sion of cultural repertoires and cultural boundaries.
The Omnivore Thesis
In a series of influential articles, Peterson and his
colleagues (Peterson, 1992, 1997; Peterson and Simkus,
1992; Peterson and Kern, 1996) reformulated the link
between cultural capital and social boundaries. They
argued that members of the upper class in the US, who
formerly had been defined as cultural snobs in terms
of their preference for a limited range of highbrow
cultural tastes (Levine, 1998), are turning into cultural
omnivores; namely, an upper class that experiences
and appreciates a variety of cultural tastes: highbrow,
middlebrow, and lowbrow. The omnivore thesis stands
in contrast to Bourdieu’s formulation of homology
in cultural stratification, that upper class groups
show preference for highbrow culture while lower
class groups prefer lowbrow culture. The omnivore
thesis also differs from accounts of cultural consump-
tion as an aspect of lifestyles that is fluid, flexible, and
transient, in the sense that consumption patterns are
individualized (Giddens, 1991), elective, do not reflect
well-established communities, and involve short-term
commitments (Slater, 1997).
The snob versus omnivore thesis caught the atten-
tion of a number of scholars who demonstrated its
applicability and its variations in diverse cultural fields
in different countries (e.g. Bryson, 1997; Van Rees
et al., 1999; Warde et al., 1999; Holbrook et al., 2002;
López Sintas and Garcia Álvarez, 2002; Emmison,
2003). These works characterized omnivorousness in
sundry ways based either on cultural tastes (particu-
larly musical genres: Peterson and Simkus, 1992;
Peterson and Kern, 1996; Bryson, 1997; Emmison,
2003, and reading: Van Rees et al., 1999) or on cultural
behaviour (particularly leisure activities: López Sintas
and Garcia Álvarez, 2002; Holbrook et al., 2002,
but also eating habits: Warde et al., 1999).
They then looked at the social bases of the
omnivorous type. In line with several major studies
that have long demonstrated a strong correlation
between economic class and patterns of cultural
consumption and lifestyle (Weber, 1974; Gans, 1974;
Bourdieu, 1984), several studies in recent years, while
acknowledging the importance of this relationship, also
argued that the complexity of the connections between
class location and cultural tastes should be further
probed (Bihagen and Katz-Gerro, 2000; Han, 2003;
Katz-Gerro, 2002, 2004, 2006). Specifically, research on
the omnivore type generally finds that younger age,
higher education, higher income, and higher occupa-
tional status are strongly associated with omnivorous
cultural preferences (Warde et al., 1999; Van Eijck,
2001; López Sintas and Garcia Álvarez, 2002; Holbrook
et al., 2002; Emmison, 2003).
Revisiting Omnivorousness
The general goal of the research described here was to
problematize, revisit, and modify the contours of the
omnivore concept, through complementing it with a
measure based on both the range and the frequency of
cultural participation. Our reconsideration of omniv-
orousness stems from three sources. First, Bourdieu’s
(1984) emphasis on the differences in the way
individuals consume rather than on what they
consume led us to look more closely at the (voracious)
pattern of consumption in addition to the (omniv-
orous) contents of consumption. This emphasis stems
from a perspective that sees the expression of cultural
capital as embodied in consumer actions (Holt, 1997).
Holt asserts that research on the association between
cultural capital and social divisions should rely less
on cultural contents and more on consumption
practices. This is because the content of objectified
cultural capital has become a relatively weak exclu-
sionary mechanism due to increasingly blurred cultural
hierarchies in contemporary societies.
Campbell (1987) had earlier linked the idea of the
insatiable consumer to the unique dynamic character
of modern-day consumption. High levels of individ-
ual consumption in contemporary developed societies
stem from the insatiability of consumers (the fact that
their wants appear never to be exhaustible). Hedonistic
consumers are unlimited in their appetites for intense
emotional experiences (Bell, 1979) and their focus of
desire is the experience the consumer anticipates of the
act of consumption (McCracken, 1990). If this desire
were provided not by leisure participation in itself
but by anticipation of a novel leisure activity, we
would expect modern consumerism to involve a high
turnover of goods and experiences, or, in our terms,
a voracious pattern of cultural participation. In a
different but related account of cultural behaviour,
Schulze (1992) offers a perspective in which cultural
repertoires are characterized by the aesthetics of
excitement (‘Spannungschema’). For Schulze, it is self-
realization that drives the cultural preferences of the
affluent middle class, who engage in various highbrow,
 THE OMNIVORE THESIS REVISITED: VORACIOUS CULTURAL CONSUMERS
popular, and folk cultural genres, providing a mix of
cultural experiences. Highbrow culture is, according to
Schulze, related to the experience of transcendence,
popular culture is related to the experience of fun and
pleasure, and folk culture is related to the experience
of incorporation and belonging. The three realms act
as organizing principles in the utilization of culture for
this class.
In many ways our depiction of a voracious cultural
consumer also resonates with Swidler’s tool kit (1986)
or cultural repertoire (2001) metaphor. Swidler argues
that a person’s cultural repertoire works like a tool kit,
playing a dominant role in structuring strategies for
action. It is a repertoire of habits, skills, and styles
from which people construct their understanding
of the world and how to conduct themselves in it.
Similarly, a voracious cultural consumer feels comfor-
table with switching and constantly making choices
between activities, which s/he engages in for brief
periods. In terms of orientation to time, this pattern
implies a polychronic (multi-tasking) ‘timestyle’
(Feldman and Hornik, 1981).1 A polychronic orienta-
tion to time, in the context of consumer behaviour,
means avoidance of immersion in one specific con-
sumer activity and a preference for acting on a whim
or hopping back and forth from one activity to
another (Cotte et al., 2004).
The second issue in revisiting omnivorousness,
which is closely related to the theoretical discussion
above, is a consideration of measurement. In this
research we decided to employ time use data on leisure
participation; this was in response to research that has
drawn attention to the fact that omnivorousness is
composed of several different aspects, not all of which
have received the same expression in measurement
(Warde et al., 2000; Emmison, 2003; Peterson, 2005).
Van Eijck (2000) outlined three such aspects used for
measuring the omnivorous concept: musical tastes;
attendance at ‘high arts’ events; and types of leisure
activity patterns. In their early studies Peterson and
Simkus (1992) and Peterson and Kern (1996) mea-
sured omnivorousness using tastes in musical genres,
and this has continued to be an important area
of research (see, for example, Bryson, 1996, 1997;
van Eijck, 2001). Subsequently, other scholars too used
cultural preferences to operationalize omnivorousness
(Bryson, 1997; Emmison, 2003). Yet, while several
authors have emphasized the importance of measuring
what people report doing rather than relying on
self-reported cultural tastes (Van Rees et al., 1999;
López Sintas and Garcia Álvarez, 2002), fewer studies
have chosen to look at actual behaviour in relation to
leisure activity participation, such as arts attendance
125
or dining out (for examples see Warde et al., 1999;
Van Rees et al., 1999; López Sintas and Garcia Álvarez,
2002). However, some of these previous attempts to
measure omnivorousness based upon consumption
practices have tended to elide the original meaning
of omnivorousness (a broad range of cultural tastes)
with the type and frequency of participation in different
activities. In this article we insist upon preserving the
original meaning of omnivorousness, distinguishing
it from the measure of voraciousness, which is based
on the frequency of participation in specific cultural
activities.
Additionally, most empirical studies of omnivorous-
ness have used standard survey research methods based
on questionnaire measures (Peterson, 2005). In our
study we employed time use data—to the best of
our knowledge not used before in the analysis
of omnivorousness—to investigate the relationship of
status, time and participation in cultural activities.
The final issue relates to time pressure and the need
to take time into account when describing cultural
participation. A fast pace of life is a feature of modern
and post-modern societies (Toffler, 1970; Shaw, 1998).
Findings in the literature link economic development
with time congestion and reduced opportunity for
leisure on the one hand, and a shift of time use from
production to consumption on the other (Gershuny,
2000). An early perspective on the way individuals
deal with modern society that emphasized the rhythm
of time was offered by Simmel (1950; 1957). Simmel
emphasized the tempo and multiplicity of economic,
occupational, and social life in the urban setting,
in which individuals experience many contacts, short
contacts, and a quicker tempo. In a setting character-
ized by fluctuations and discontinuities, individuals
assert a personality by adopting habits, styles, and
fashion that make them stand out. Rosa (2003) claims
that to understand the nature and character of moder-
nity and the logic of its structural and cultural
developments we should add a temporal perspective
to social analysis. He uses the term social acceleration
to describe a cardinal change in temporal patterns
whereby acceleration of the pace of life becomes the
overriding principle for individuals in late modernity.
Within accelerated society, speed becomes an impera-
tive, and time compression and the intensification of
processes are necessary.
In his discussion of the ‘harried leisure class’ Staffan
Linder was one of the first to identify the change that
has occurred over time in the association of work,
leisure and class (Linder, 1970; Sullivan and Gershuny,
2001). At the turn of the nineteenth century, when
Veblen (1994[1899]) was writing about conspicuous
126 SULLIVAN AND KATZ-GERRO
consumption among the rising professional classes, the
distribution of leisure time was markedly different
from today. As an example, we can compare the
perhaps apocryphal image of the ‘bankers’ lunch—a
long, alcoholic midday indulgence—with the image of
the present-day investment banker or stockbroker,
frenetically busy on several telephones for the entire
day and much of the night. The current and growing
association between high (earned) income and time
scarcity has already been well documented (e.g. Jacobs
and Gerson, 1998; Gershuny, 2000; Sullivan and
Gershuny, 2004). Evidence of the working hours of
better-qualified and high-income earners suggests that
as qualification levels rise, so do hours of work
(Robinson and Godbey, 1997; Gershuny, 2000).
The connection between this literature and vora-
ciousness is that one solution, which has been
suggested for the increasing scarcity of time among
certain groups, is an increase in intensity of activities,
at work and at leisure alike. This increase in intensity
involves more activities being done simultaneously,
but it may also involve shorter spells being spent
on each activity, so that the sequence becomes more
crowded, but also more fragmented, leading to ever
heavier feelings of time pressure (e.g. Shaw, 1998;
Bittman and Wajcman, 2000; Bittman, 2002; Mattingly
and Bianchi, 2003; Southerton, 2003; Katz-Gerro and
Sullivan, 2004). Individuals feel pressured to reduce
process time in their public and their private lives, and
they respond, among other things, by increasingly
compressing, fragmenting, and compartmentalizing
time (Southerton, 2003). For example, Hochschild
(1997) has argued that one of the corollaries of the
‘time bind’ for dual-career couples is that individuals
apply a pattern of workplace temporal organization to
their leisure time by fragmenting and re-sequencing it.
In a study that reformulates Bourdieu’s theory
of taste and applies it in an American context, Holt
(1997, 1998) also acknowledges the important link
among work, leisure and taste, and raises the question
of status. He argues that for individuals with high
cultural capital, the orientation to leisure mirrors their
approach to work. Individuals with high cultural
capital have careers characterized by an emphasis on
symbolic analysis (e.g. the necessity to synthesize and
manipulate information). Since the cultural skills of
symbolic analysis are required for occupational success,
they play a role in class reproduction and put demands
on busy individuals to acquire them through intense
involvement in leisure activities. In fact Linder (1970)
suggested that to be ‘harried’ (to have too little time
and too much to do) might be a new form of status
distinction because of its growing association with
higher-class groups. This is designated by a cultural
change from ‘honour’ attached to large amounts of
leisure time to ‘honour’ attached to ‘busyness’ at work
(Jacobs and Gerson, 2004; Gershuny, 2005). Could a
fast pace of out-of-home leisure participation also be
conceived of as a new marker of status distinction?
According to this hypothesis, the ‘tasting’ of many
different out-of-home leisure activities with a fast
turnover would imply a kind of ‘‘multi-cultural
capital’’ (Bryson, 1997) of leisure. This argument is
consonant with other claims in the literature that some
high-status groups increasingly work more but also
consume more (Schor, 1992). This indicates in such
groups a fast tempo of life and a pattern of high
turnover of cultural experiences, combining a high
capacity to spend, little free time, and a consump-
tion profile that aims at exhibiting a diverse cultural
repertoire.
The theoretical considerations discussed here suggest
the development of a complementary measure to
omnivorousness, which combines an assessment of
the range of activities (to reflect a diverse cultural
repertoire) with the frequency of participation
(to characterize a high turnover of activities). In this
article we introduce the concept of voraciousness as
a theoretical variation of omnivorousness. Time use
data are applied to provide a measure based on the
reported frequency of participation in different leisure
activities rather than on tastes. This measure reflects
a ‘quantitative’ dimension of leisure consumption
based not only on the breadth of cultural tastes
(as in omnivorousness) but also on the frequency of
participation in different leisure activities. By combin-
ing this measure with the literature on time pressure
and the pace of leisure in modern societies we are
able to readdress the concept of omnivorousness with
a theoretical emphasis on how people consume rather
than on what they consume.
Method
The Data
Our data comprised the first wave of ‘Home OnLine’,
a panel study undertaken by the Institute for Social
and Economic Research at the University of Essex,
England, of adult individuals in households in Britain.2
The first wave was conducted between October and
December (inclusive) of 1998, and was selected accord-
ing to a qualified form of randomization, which
ensures inclusion of geographically clustered areas
with representation of different social strata similar
to that of the population. Selection of households was
 THE OMNIVORE THESIS REVISITED: VORACIOUS CULTURAL CONSUMERS
random within these areas, with an overrepresentation
of homes with personal computers. Counterweights
were included in the dataset to reproduce the expected
sample without overrepresentation of households
with computers. Two methods were used to collect
the data. Firstly, interviews were conducted with all
adult members (aged 16 or older) of the household.
In addition, interviewed respondents were provided
with a week-long diary in which they were asked to
record, from a list of activity categories, what they
did every quarter hour on each day of that week.
The activities recorded in the diary were based but
were not identical to) the standardized categories used
in the Multi-national Time Use Study (MTUS),3
a cross-national archive of time use diary studies
held at the University of Essex. Diaries were returned
by post; in return, respondents received a gift voucher.
Sample Size and Response Rates
The original sample comprised 1000 households,
containing 2034 adult individuals. Of these, 1093
responded to the interview and completed the diary
and 668 responded to the interview only, a total
response rate of 87 percent. From this data set we
selected a subset of respondents aged between 16 and
65 who were identified in the interview as either the
head of household or the partner of the head of
household. This yielded a sample of 1317 individuals
and couples in households.4
The Variables
The first advantage of this data set for our purposes
was that it contained information on participation
in leisure activities both from questionnaire and
time use diary sources, making possible a choice
and a comparison of measures of voraciousness.
Questionnaire measures of activity participation are
the most familiar means of data-collection on leisure
participation in the area of cultural consumption,
although time use measures are becoming increas-
ingly applied (e.g. Garhammer, 1998; Robinson and
Godbey, 1999). Therefore, it was important to be
able to compare the new diary source with the more
standard measures. It has been shown that diary
estimates of time spent in different activities, where
people record their participation in those activities
with at least some degree of contemporaneity (i.e., in
their diaries), differ from estimates based upon
responses to retrospective questions. It can safely be
assumed that diary estimates are in fact the more
accurate, since they do not involve the same problems
127
of retrospective recall or respondents’ estimations
of their ‘usual’ behaviour (see Juster, 1985; Robinson,
1985; Kalfs, 1993). A further advantage of the partic-
ular diary used in the Home OnLine study is that
it was kept for a week rather than for a single day
(the more common data-collection procedure).
It therefore permits analysis of a wider and more
representative range of activities, encompassing those
done less frequently (e.g. once a week instead of
once a day). This is a valuable feature in the analysis
of leisure, particularly leisure activities outside the
home, since many such activities fall into this category.
Moreover, the data set contained a larger selection
of socio-economic and cultural variables, for use as
independent variables, than that available in other data
sets such as the standardized data files of the MTUS.
From these data we were thus able to construct and
compare different measures of voraciousness, based
both on time use diary data and on questionnaire
responses. Two questionnaire measures of voracious-
ness were derived from a question in the interview
schedule asking respondents how frequently they
engaged in particular leisure activities.5 The specific
out-of-home leisure activities selected for the measure
were: going to the cinema/concerts/the theatre; leisure
group participation; eating/drinking out; watching
sports; and doing sports/keeping fit/walking. Out-
of-home leisure activities in particular are chosen
because they express active consumer behaviours that
in general take both time and money to engage in, and
consequently provide a link to both socio-economic
and time resources. The measure was constructed
by summing the number of these activities done on
‘most days’, ‘at least once a week’, and ‘at least once
a month’, yielding a scale of 0 (none)–5 (all).
The second measure of voraciousness was based on
time use diary information, and was designed to be
as compatible as possible with the questionnaire
measures. In their diaries, respondents recorded their
participation in different leisure activities throughout
the week in quarter-hour slots. The diary measure
simply counted the number of different out-of-home
leisure activities done in the diary week, giving a range
from 0 (none) to 4 (all). The out-of-home leisure
activities selected for the diary measure were: going
to concerts/the cinema; walking; eating/drinking out;
and doing sports.6 Like the questionnaire measures
it was therefore a measure both of the range (since it
involves counting how many different activities are
participated in) and of the frequency (since in order
to be recorded during a specific week an activity has
to be done on average at least weekly) of participation
in different out-of-home leisure activities.
128 SULLIVAN AND KATZ-GERRO
Independent Variables
Indicators of human capital (as measured by highest
educational qualification), of economic capital
(as measured by the social status of the occupational
category), and of cultural capital (as measured by the
type of daily newspaper read), constituted our
independent variables. These three indicators represent
the most common determinants of cultural participa-
tion as indicated by Bourdieuvian theory and as found
in the empirical literature (Bourdieu, 1984; Katz-Gerro,
2002; Chan and Goldthorpe, 2006). Education is
regarded as representing cognitive competence, eco-
nomic capital represents financial ability, and cultural
capital represents cultural disposition. While the three
are typically closely related and positively correlated,
each one operates through a different mechanism in
its influence on consumption patterns (Van Eijck
and Bargeman, 2004). We included the type of daily
newspaper read as an independent variable, because as
a measure of cultural capital we expected a correlation
between it and the extent of cultural participation.
Reading is considered part of cultured consumption
and is important for the pursuit of status (Zavisca,
2005), and newspaper reading is a low-cost readily
available form of reading. Since for most people read-
ing a newspaper is a daily activity, and since the choice
of newspaper is quite one-dimensional in terms of
a cultural hierarchy, we considered it a reasonably
unequivocal indicator of cultural capital (Chan and
Goldthorpe, 2006). Sex and a family structure variable
based on a ’life-cycle’ set of categories combining
Table 1 Distributions and means of the time use diary and questionnaire measures of voraciousness
Number of different Questionnaire
out-of-home leisure measure 1 N (%)
activities
None 135 (19.7)
One 304 (44.2)
Two 186 (27.1)
Three 60 (8.7)
Four 2 (0.3)
Five 1 (0.1)
N = 100% 688y
Mean 1.26
Correlation coefficient
(Spearman’s rho) with
weekly diary measure 0.363
y
The analyses are based on a sample of 1317 respondents. However, the total N in this and all subsequent analyses in the article are a result of
the sample weighting which corrects for both the original over-sampling of households with a personal computer and for patterns of non-response.
Source: Home OnLine, Britain, 1998 (first wave).
age with number of children were also used as control
variables in the multivariate analyses.
Results
Comparison of Measures
The first step was to compare the time use and
questionnaire measures of voraciousness. There has
been some criticism in the literature of time use diaries
as data collection instruments in the area of free time
and leisure activities (see the Round Table Discussion
on non-response bias in time use surveys in Leisure &
Society, 1998). One of the most common arguments
is that, while time use diaries may be able to accurately
record activities which are done frequently and regu-
larly, they may be unreliable when it comes to less
frequently performed activities. The use of a weeklong
diary, however, seems to go a long way in meeting
these objections. In Table 1, the first questionnaire
measure of voraciousness is based on the number of
activities reported from the survey as being done at
least once a week. With a weekly diary one would
expect on the average to record all these activities. The
second questionnaire measure also contains those
activities that are reported on the survey question
as being done ‘‘at least once a month’’. On average
one-quarter of these activities will appear in a weekly
diary. Assuming that the diary gives an accurate record
of activity participation we would therefore expect
the diary estimate to have a higher distribution and
mean than the first questionnaire measure, but a lower
Weekly diary Questionnaire
measure N (%) measure 2 N (%)
103 (15.0) 57 (8.3)
232 (33.7) 179 (26.0)
227 (32.9) 247 (35.8)
102 (14.8) 150 (21.8)
24 (3.5) 49 (7.1)
– 7 (1.0)
688y 688y
1.58 1.96
0.350
 THE OMNIVORE THESIS REVISITED: VORACIOUS CULTURAL CONSUMERS 129

distribution and mean than the second questionnaire
measure. Since both the distribution and mean of
the diary measure sit squarely between those of the
two questionnaire measures, we can conclude that time
use diaries are indeed effective in measuring leisure
participation, even for activities done monthly.
In assessing the two measures we decided that
the time-use diary instrument (recorded over a week of
activities) may be the more accurate in recording the
true range of different weekly activities, since in the
diary activities were recorded simultaneously (or nearly
simultaneously) with their actual performance, while in
the questionnaire respondents were asked to assess the
frequency with which they participated in particular
activities. Comparison of these measures suggested
under-reporting by women to the survey question
about the number of different leisure activities, and
indeed, general under-reporting of activities in surveys
by comparison to time-use diary data has been
commented on before in the methodological literature
on time use diaries: see Dow and Juster 1985).
We therefore decided to present findings from the
diary measure only in the remaining analyses.7
Who are the ‘‘Voracious’’?
The next stage of the analysis was to see if the
relationship between our new measure of voracious-
ness and our measures of human, economic, and
cultural capital corresponded to the relationships
known from the literature on omnivorousness. For
example, in different studies the following groups were
found to exhibit omnivorous tastes: younger people
(Peterson and Kern, 1996); younger, highly educated,
service class (López Sintas and Garcia Álvarez, 2002);
highly educated, higher income, younger, white collar
occupation (Warde et al., 1999); highly educated
(Holbrook et al., 2002); highly educated, higher
occupational status, younger (Van Eijck, 2001).
Table 2 shows mean values for our measure of
voraciousness according to our various measures of
capital: educational level, social status of job, and type
of newspaper read.
In keeping with the above findings on omnivorous-
ness, statistically strong relationships proved to exist
between these measures of human, economic, and
cultural capital and the number of different out-
of-home leisure activities participated in per week.
The means in the table’s columns show that for all
three of our independent variables those who occupied
the ‘higher’ categories participated in a greater average
number of different activities. All the relationships
are positive and monotonic in character (such that
the higher the level of capital the higher the number
of different activities participated in), and they are
all statistically significant.8
Having demonstrated the relationships between
voraciousness and the independent variables reflecting
different aspects of capital, we performed a multiple
analysis of variance on each of these relationships,
which held constant the effects of sex and of family
structure.9 These analyses were necessary to show that
the strong linear associations seen in Table 2 were not
attributable to the effects of these other important
structural variables. The results (not shown here,
available from the authors) demonstrate that all the
independent variables remained highly significant at
the P < 0.005 level or higher.10 The strong positive

Table 2 Number of different out-of-home leisure activities/week by various measures of capital

Social status of job
Mean (N) Highest qualification


Mean (N) Newspaper Mean (N)
read

High management 1.79 (50) Degree, nursing 1.89 (141) Quality 2.00 (81)
Low management 1.83 (136) A-levely, higher vocational 1.63 (122) Medium 1.66 (161)
Intermediate 1.77 (80) GCSEy, lower vocational 1.59 (241) Tabloid 1.38 (176)
Small employer 1.56 (43) Failed GCSEy, youth training 1.47 (26)
Low supervisor 1.49 (52)
Semi-routine 1.39 (56)
Routine 1.35 (54)
(Undefined) (1.58) (20) (None) 1.30 (167) (None) (1.55) (278)
Total 1.64 (491) Total 1.58 (696) Total 1.58 (696)


One-way analysis of variance statistically significant at P < 0.05.




One-way analysis of variance statistically significant at P < 0.001.
y
Key: A-level ¼ School matriculation exam.
GCSE ¼ General school certificate exam.
Source: Home OnLine, Britain, 1998 (first wave).
130 SULLIVAN AND KATZ-GERRO
association found in the one-way relationships between
the number of different out-of-home leisure activities
and our measures of the level of human and economic
capital (highest qualification level, social status of job)
and of cultural capital (type of newspaper read)
persisted even when each analysis controlled for the
effects of family structure and of sex.
In addition, although the raw means show that men
participated in more different out-of-home leisure
activities than women, the effect of sex in the above
multiple analyses of variance was not statistically
significant. With regard to the family structure vari-
able, adults living alone participate in the greatest
number of different out-of-home leisure activities.
Among those in couples, young couples (aged
under 36) without children participated in the highest
number of different out-of-home leisure activities
(i.e. were the most voracious) and those with children
aged under 12 in the household participated in the
lowest number. These results accord with findings on
leisure participation more generally, and also with the
findings from the omnivorous literature, in which it
is younger people without families who in general
display the widest range of cultural tastes.
The findings set out so far confirmed that we had a
measure of voraciousness that bore a strong similarity
to some of the behaviourally based measures of
omnivorousness used previously in the literature
(e.g. López Sintas and Garcia Álvarez, 2002)
(as opposed to those focusing on expressed preferences
or tastes). However, this measure, we maintain, should
be conceptually distinguished from the meaning of
omnivorousness as it was originally conceived, namely
as a measure of the breadth of cultural tastes of
highbrow consumers. Nevertheless, the association we
found between high levels of status with voraciousness
accords with the same association found in the liter-
ature for measures of omnivorousness, including those
based on tastes.
To strengthen this connection, however, we need to
consider more closely what our new measure actually
means. There is a difference, after all, between enjoying
a wide selection of different music genres (the basis for
some measures of omnivorousness) and having time
to spend on several different out-of-home leisure
activities during the week. It could be hypothesized,
for example, that the extent of participation in out-
of-home leisure activities was primarily a function of
time or of money. The observed association between
high levels of human and cultural capital and
voraciousness may simply have been because such
people tend to have more money to spend on leisure,
or more time for it. The first of these propositions
(that people with higher levels of human and cultural
capital have more money) is almost certainly true; the
second (that they have more time) is more doubtful,
considering the increasingly reported association
between high levels of employment income and long
hours of work (e.g. Sullivan and Gershuny, 2004).
However, both propositions could be tested through
these data, to see whether the observed associations
between high levels of human and cultural capital and
voraciousness can be attributed to time or money.
We examined the relationship of our independent
measures with income (measured as usual net monthly
pay for the employed/self-employed) and with time
(measured as usual hours of work per week, for the
employed, and as total leisure time). In keeping with
previous findings (see for example Jacobs and Gerson,
1998; Robinson and Godbey, 1999; Gershuny, 2000;
Sullivan and Gershuny, 2004), these analyses support
the generally positive relationships expected between
higher levels of pay and higher levels of human,
economic, and cultural capital, and the negative
relationship expected between available time for leisure
and higher levels of capital (shown in Appendix 1).
On the whole people with higher levels of human,
economic, and cultural capital had more money but
less total leisure time than others.
But how were these facts about income and time
availability related to our measure of voraciousness?
To answer this question we needed to examine whether
the one-way associations between our measure of
voraciousness and the independent variables represent-
ing different aspects of capital remained significant in
a multiple analysis of covariance controlling not just
for sex and family structure (as above) but also for
covariates representing available time and income.
Table 3 shows the results.
The relationship of all three of our independent
variables (social status of job, level of highest qualifi-
cation, and type of newspaper read) with voraciousness
is seen to have remained highly statistically significant
even when controlling for the effects of time and
income as covariates in the analysis. The only cases
where this was not so were for the models in which
net monthly pay was the covariate, and highest
qualification level and type of newspaper read were
the independent variables. In both these models
the relationship with voraciousness is in the expected
direction (i.e. higher levels of human, economic, and
cultural capital were associated with a higher mean
number of different out-of-home leisure activities
in a clear monotonic sequence), but does not reach
the accepted boundary of statistical significance.
However, in identical analyses that we ran with the
 THE OMNIVORE THESIS REVISITED: VORACIOUS CULTURAL CONSUMERS 131

Table 3 Multiple analysis of variance models showing effect of various variables on the number of different
out-of-home leisure activities per week

Covariate ¼ net Covariate ¼ hours

monthly income worked per week Covariate ¼ total
Independent variables (employees only) (employees only) leisure time

Social Status of Job P ¼ 0.004, beta¼ 0.22 P ¼ 0.000, beta¼ 0.20 P ¼ 0.000, beta¼0.20
Predicted means (adjusted):
Management 1.78 1.81 1.83
Intermediate 1.86 1.77 1.74
Small employer/low supervision 1.62 1.57 1.55
Semi/unskilled routine 1.28 1.30 1.33
Family Structure P ¼ 0.001, beta¼ 0.26 P ¼ 0.002, beta¼0.20 ns
Sex ns ns ns
Covariate ns ns P ¼ 0.000
Model R2 0.11 0.08 0.12
Highest Qualification Level ns (beta ¼ 0.13) P ¼ 0.033, beta¼0.14 P ¼ 0.000, beta¼0.20
Predicted means (adjusted):
Degree, nursing qualification 1.82 1.85 1.89
A-level, higher vocational 1.64 1.64 1.65
GCSE, lower vocational 1.55 1.58 1.59
None 1.48 1.44 1.30
Family Structure P ¼ 0.008, beta¼0.23 P ¼ 0.02, beta¼0.17 ns
Sex ns ns ns
Covariate ns ns P ¼ 0.000
Model R2 0.07 0.06 0.09
c. Type of Newspaper Read NS (beta ¼ 0.12) P ¼ 0.000, beta¼0.20 P ¼ 0.000, beta¼0.17
Predicted means (adjusted):
Quality 1.82 2.06 1.98
Medium 1.73 1.70 1.68
Tabloid 1.48 1.39 1.38
None 1.60 1.60 1.54
Family Structure P ¼ 0.004, beta¼0.24 P ¼ 0.004, beta¼0.19 P ¼ 0.001, beta¼0.17
Sex ns ns ns
Covariate ns ns P ¼ 0.000
Model R2 0.07 0.08 0.09
Source: Home OnLine, Britain, 1998 (first wave).

questionnaire-derived dependent variable measure,
the direction of the predicted means was the same,
but, because of the larger sample numbers responding
to the questionnaire, these relationships were found
to be statistically significant, at P ¼ 0.015 and 0.000
respectively.
To summarize, our overall conclusion is that
individuals with high levels of human, economic, and
cultural capital have less time for leisure but still
engage in a greater range of out-of-home leisure
activities. We can assume that what characterizes these
groups in general is shorter periods of leisure, which
are also more diverse in terms of the range of different
out-of-home activities participated in. This conclusion
is supported by a further refinement of the analysis in
which the total amount of time spent on the same four
out-of-home leisure activities as were used to calculate
the dependent variable was entered as a covariate into
the same multiple analysis of variance. In this analysis,
which assessed the number of different out-of-home
leisure activities performed while holding constant the
total amount of time spent in these four activities, the
effects of social status of job, highest qualification level,
and type of newspaper read remained statistically
significant. The implication is that the higher levels of
diversity of participation in out-of-home leisure for
those with higher levels of human capital and cultural
taste are independent of the total amount of time
spent on these activities. A summary of these results
is shown in Table 4.
132 SULLIVAN AND KATZ-GERRO
Table 4 Statistical significance levels for different
independent variables on the number of out-
of-home activities per week when holding constant
total time spent in those activities
Levels of statistical
significance
from multiple
analyses of variance
Total time spent Statistically significant
in four out-of-home at 0.000 in all
leisure activities three analyses
(covariate)
Social Status of Job 0.014
Highest Qualification Level 0.001
Type of Newspaper Read 0.004
Note: Analyses also include Family Structure and Sex as independent
variables.
Source: Home OnLine, Britain, 1998 (first wave).
In addition to stating the theoretical difference
between voraciousness and omnivorousness, and
establishing that our new measure of voraciousness
shares many of the same relationships with aspects
of human, economic, and cultural capital reported
from the literature on omnivorousness, we would, in
principle, also need to show how omnivorousness and
voraciousness are themselves related. Unfortunately,
the Home OnLine data are not ideal for constructing
a measure of omnivorousness, as they contained no
direct information on cultural tastes. Indeed, large-
scale data including a combination of time-use data
with details about cultural tastes, or highly specific
information about cultural activities, are extremely
rare, if non-existent. However, in keeping with other
measures of omnivorousness found in the literature,
we were able to devise a measure of omnivorousness
according to a ranking of leisure activities as represent-
ing highbrow, middlebrow, and lowbrow cultural
tastes. This ranking was based both on the cultural
content of the activity as it is commonly contextualized
in the literature (as high, middle, or low culture) and
on information on rates of participation in particular
activities. The second criteria is increasingly used in
the literature, and is predicated on the tendency
for highbrow leisure activities to be practiced less
frequently in the population as a whole, and for
lowbrow leisure activities to be more popular, thus
avoiding researcher-defined classifications of cultural
content (e.g. Peterson and Simkus, 1992; López Sintas
and Garcia Álvarez, 2005; López Sintas and Katz-
Gerro, 2005). Values on this measure ranged from
zero to three. We found a moderately low, statistically
significant correlation between this measure of omniv-
orousness and that of voraciousness (Spearman’s
r ¼ 0.200, statistically significant at P < 0.01). That
there was a correlation was to be expected, since the
construction of the omnivorousness measure was based
partly on activity participation rates; but the overlap
was not extensive and there proved to be consider-
able independence between voraciousness and this
measure of omnivorousness. Further, direct compar-
ison between these measures must for the meantime
wait for more suitable data to become available.
Cross-Time Comparisons
Two national-level British data-sets from the MTUS
archive: the 1975 BBC and the 1987 SCELI surveys11
(both of which included a week-long diary element)
permitted us to conduct a cross-time comparison to
see if our measure of voraciousness displayed the same
relationship with measures of human and economic
capital over time. As in any cross-time comparison
there were some questions of data compatibility to be
overcome. First, since the activity categories in the
harmonized MTUS data-sets are slightly different
from those used in the Home OnLine survey, the
voraciousness variable (number of different out-
of-home leisure activities participated in during the
week) was calculated slightly differently, on the basis
of a more detailed list of such activities. Secondly,
one of the problems of the MTUS archive is known
to be the relative lack of variables reflecting aspects
of human capital and social status, which confined us
to level of education, and a 3-category income variable
(for 1987 only). However, with these limitations in
mind, it was nevertheless possible to construct effec-
tively the same dependent variable, and to test
its relationship with these aspects of human and
economic capital in multiple analyses of variance in
the same way as for the Home OnLine data.
To summarize the findings, we do see from the
earlier data some of the same effects as in the Home
OnLine data regarding the direction of the overall
relationship between voraciousness and measures of
human and economic capital.12 And in an analysis
of covariance equivalent to that shown in Table 3
(i.e. with education level, sex, and family status as
the independent variables, and time in paid work and
time in leisure as covariates in two separate models)
the only difference between the results from the Home
OnLine data and those from the earlier surveys
was the clear inverted J-shape of the relationship in
the earlier surveys between educational level
 THE OMNIVORE THESIS REVISITED: VORACIOUS CULTURAL CONSUMERS
and voraciousness. Those with only secondary school
education appeared to participate in a greater number
of different activities per week than those with
education above secondary school level. This is in
contrast to the 1998 results, where there was an
unambiguous positive relationship between level of
education and voraciousness. While this may merely be
the outcome of data inconsistencies, it might also
represent a real change over time in the relationship
between voraciousness and human capital, reflecting,
for example, changes in the distribution of income,
leisure time, and leisure preferences across different
groups.
Discussion
Our revisiting of the omnivore thesis in this article
took three directions. First, we introduced a method-
ological innovation into the omnivorousness literature
by exploiting time use data to measure actual behav-
iour. We believe that it is more accurate to measure
respondents’ behaviour directly rather than to rely on
responses to questionnaire items on ‘usual’ behaviour
or preferences.
Second, by looking at activity patterns we empha-
sized the way individuals consume, rather than what
they consume. The aim here was to address the
temporal aspect of cultural omnivorousness, which,
we argued, is manifested both in a wide band of
cultural tastes and in a voracious frequency of
cultural participation. While omnivorousness is usually
regarded as relating to the range of cultural tastes,
voraciousness, as we define it, relates both to the range
and frequency of cultural practices. We found
voraciousness to share many of the relationships
commonly found in the analysis of omnivorousness
(for example, to educational qualifications, to measures
of job social status and to age, as well as to aspects
of cultural taste such as choice of daily newspaper),
and we argued that voraciousness and omnivorousness
represent two separate but related dimensions of
cultural consumption. We showed that the relationship
between voraciousness and measures of human and
economic capital, family structure, time in paid work,
and time in leisure generally persist over time
when we compared data from 1975, 1987, and 1998.
These findings and their interpretation confirmed
the validity of the conceptual stimuli that initially
led us to look for the division of omnivorousness into
different dimensions. We interpret the findings as
depicting a culturally active leisure-style, a tendency to
seek diverse experiences (Holt, 1997; Schulze, 1992),
133
an insatiable consumer behaviour (Campbell, 1987),
and a plentiful cultural tool kit (Swidler, 1986) among
higher status groups.
Third, we provided a theoretical link between these
dimensions of cultural omnivorousness and configura-
tions of late modern cultural consumption, in which
status is continuously being reproduced. While we
were not able, from this data, to directly compare
voraciousness with omnivorousness as it was originally
measured according to cultural tastes (this would
require the rare combination of time-use data with
details about cultural tastes), it was clear from our
analyses that both omnivorousness and voraciousness
are associated with high status, in terms of higher
levels of education, job status, and cultural capital.
The activity patterns of high status individuals attested
that they participated in the greatest number of
different cultural activities, and we showed that this
could probably not be attributed simply to having
more time or money than others. We postulated a
pattern of high status individuals with an ‘insatiable’
appetite for multiple leisure activities notwithstanding
the time squeeze. Since voraciousness seems neither
to be about monetary access to leisure goods and
services nor about the overall availability of leisure
time, we argue that its significant feature is its role as
a status marker, a cultural boundary, and a sign of
social exclusion. Further, by adding time pressure and
pace of life to the discussion of cultural distinction,
we argue that voraciousness, like omnivorousness,
may combine an element of the status accruing to
time pressuredness with a connection to multi-cultural
capital (as identified by Bryson, 1996) through the
knowledge and performance of a range of time and
money-intensive (out-of-home) leisure activities.
We interpret these findings as suggesting a depiction
of status distinction associated with high status
individuals who tend to be harried or busy, to work
more and consume more, and to have a fast life
tempo while also embracing a diverse cultural
repertoire. The delineation of cultural boundaries is
modified here to depict not only an omnivorous
profile, but also a voracious pattern that may
characterize the dynamics of cultural exclusion.
As Veblen (1994 [1899]) pointed out, it is possible
that the lines of demarcation between social classes are
in general becoming more vague and temporary,
and that voraciousness is therefore actually related to
a globalized widening of shared tastes among
high status groups. Nevertheless, our theoretical
expectation would be that social emulation that
trickles down the social structure, resulting in
more blurred cultural boundaries between classes,
134 SULLIVAN AND KATZ-GERRO
always antecedes specialization and innovation adopted
by the upper classes, thereby reinforcing cultural
boundaries (see McCracken, 1990).
The conclusions presented above should be qualified
and further explored in future research on several
grounds. First, cross sectional data does not allow for
causal ordering, so the direction of the relationship
between human, economic, and cultural capital and
consumption cannot be assumed from these data
alone. Second, it is possible that there are anteceding
factors, not included in these analyses, which influence
both levels of achieved capital and types and levels of
cultural consumption. Third, future research could
develop more sensitive measures of active leisure-styles
and link them more systematically to measures both
of insatiability in the sphere of consumption and to
the acceleration of life tempo both over time and
across different countries.
Our analysis fleshes out a dimension of cultural
consumption that is not necessarily about participating
seriously in large numbers of activities for long periods
of time but about cultural tasting and switching
among, or differently combining, those activities.
Voraciousness may therefore not be about commit-
ment to many activities but about commitment to not
leaving many activities untouched or unpractised.13
The voracious activity pattern may perhaps be one way
to reconcile the contradiction between the ‘increasingly
overworked’ contention and the ‘increase in leisure
time’ contention, if we maintain that discretionary
time can be devoted to work and to leisure alike by
means of voracious cultural participation.
Notes
1. Feldman and Hornik (1981) coined the term
timestyle to suggest that the choice of daily
activities constitutes the locus of the meaning of
time to individuals.
2. The original data collection was funded by British
Telecommunications plc.
3. For further details of the MTUS see Gershuny
et al., 2000.
4. We also derived a randomly selected sample of one
adult individual per household, and all analyses
were performed for both these samples. The results
for the individual sample were identical to those
for the sample of individual and couple house-
holds; given the greater numbers in the latter, we
present here only those results.
5. The response categories were: most days; at
least once a week; at least once a month;
several times a year; once a year or less; never/
almost never.
6. The diary’s leisure categories were not precisely
comparable with the questionnaire’s leisure
categories.
7. The unavoidable disadvantage of this decision was
slightly to reduce the effective sample size, since
not all the respondents returned a completed time
use diary.
8. When job status categories were combined into
a smaller number of categories to enlarge the cell
sizes the relationship became statistically signifi-
cant at the P<0.005 level.
9. The measure of family structure was based on
life-cycle stages, including aspects of age and the
presence and age of dependent children in the
household. The categories are: living alone, aged
under 36; living with spouse, aged under 36 with
no dependent children; living with spouse, over
age 36 with no dependent children; living with
spouse, dependent children aged under 12 in the
house; living with spouse, dependent children
aged 12 or more in the house; other.
10. For the purposes of this analysis the categories of
job status were recoded into a 4-category variable:
management; Intermediate; small employers and
supervisors; semi-skilled and unskilled routine.
11. Further details about each may be obtained from
the MTUS website <http://iser.essex.ac.uk/mtus>.
12. Details of these analyses may be obtained from
the authors.
13. See Han (2003) for a discussion of the link
between social position and cultural disposition
in terms of tastes in music. Han argues that
omnivorousness is not only about a large number
of genres liked; it is more about switching
evaluation-distinction criteria.
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 THE OMNIVORE THESIS REVISITED: VORACIOUS CULTURAL CONSUMERS 137

Tally Katz-Gerro, Department of Sociology and

Authors’ Addresses
Oriel Sullivan (to whom correspondence should be
addressed), Department of Behavioural Sciences,
Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel.
Email: sullivan@bgu.ac.il
Anthropology, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905,
Israel. Email: tkatz@soc.haifa.ac.il
Manuscript received: January 2006

Appendix 1 Net pay, hours of work and leisure time by measures of human, economic, and cultural capital

Net usual monthly Usual work Total leisure

pay (pounds) (N) hours/week (N) time/week (N)

Educational level:
Degree, nursing qualification 1,314 (81) 40.9 (114) 33.2 (139)
A-level, higher vocational 1,241 (60) 39.9 (93) 33.7 (119)
GCSE, lower vocational 842 (104) 36.4 (175) 35.0 (239)
None 842 (57) 34.9 (91) 41.2 (190)
N 302yy 472y 688
Statistical significance from one-way 0.000 0.014 0.000
analysis of variance
Social status of job:
Management 1,327 (115) 41.7 (181) 31.5 (184)
Intermediate 817 (54) 32.4 (79) 33.7 (79)
Self-employed, low supervisors 1,189 (50) 43.1 (93) 33.0 (95)
Semi-skilled, unskilled routine 666 (72) 30.9 (102) 34.2 (109)
N 291 454 467
Statistical significance from one-way 0.000 0.000 0.312
analysis of variance
Type of newspaper read:
Quality 1,591 (41) 44.4 (61) 38.7 (79)
Medium 841 (65) 36.1 (103) 38.7 (158)
Tabloid 900 (83) 36.7 (114) 36.6 (174)
None 1,079 (113) 37.4 (193) 33.6 (275)
N 302 472 687
Statistical significance from one-way 0.000 0.005 0.002
analysis of variance
Source: Home OnLine, Britain, 1998 (first wave).
y
Employees only.
yy
Employees only (lower N due to non-response on income questions).

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