Concertbezoek en vertrouwen: een verkennend onderzoek Concert Attendance and Trust: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

In this paper the relation between concert attendance and general trust will be examined, using data from the U.S. General Social Survey (GSS). The few previous research on music and trust focused on the micro-relations (neurological, psychological, therapeutic). A broader approach, focusing on concerts, could provide some more clarity about the societal functions of music and some direction to policy. In it, a distinction is made between concerts of classical music and concerts of pop music, which can help to gain some insight into the existing mechanisms. A concert is seen as a sociocultural event. Social Capital Theory will be applied to this case, initially using Pierre Bourdieu’s version of it. The theoretical foundation is that concert attendance leads to cultural capital, which can boost one’s degree of social capital via (1) increased access to social networks and (2) opportunities for new social ties. Trust is seen as the basis, and therefore an indication, of social capital. Both types of concert attendance are expected to be positively related to general trust, but it is expected that this is mostly the case for classical concerts, because it is assumed that those have in general more cultural capital. Also an interaction term is included, to examine whether visiting both classical and pop concerts enlarges the expected positive link between concert attendance and trust, which could be in accordance with the thesis of cultural omnivores. No general effect of concert attendance is found. For visitors of classical concerts a small positive effect is found, although this effect can be explained mainly by the ones that also visit pop concerts. This could imply some support for the last hypothesis. At the end some policy implications are suggested.