Participation in Cultural Activities as an Information-Oriented or Status-Related Process: A Contrastive Analysis of Two Alternative Theories Based on Previous Studies

A contrastive analysis of two theories explaining differential participation in high-level cultural activities: (1) information theory, which claims that differential participation can be explained by differences in the information processing capacities of people & in the complexity of the information processed; & (2) status theory, which holds that participation is a function of the status that a person wants to have & that the participation rate is tied to the status aspects of cultural events. An overview of Dutch empirical studies shows that while both explanations have some merit, the information theory better accounts for current leisure & cultural consumption patterns. 1 Appendix, 52 References. Modified HA.