Social class homophily is well understood, but social class heterophily is not.
Sociologists understand how actors account for class homophily—the appreciation
for a person who shares their past and present class position—and what social
factors enable their accounts. It is widely agreed upon that accounts of class homophily
tend to feature shared culture and that these accounts are common because
people who share a class share a large amount of culture (Bourdieu 1984; Gorman
2000; Illouz 1997; Johnson and Lawler 2005; Kalmijn 1998; Lamont 1992, 2000;
McPherson, Smith-Lovin, and Cook 2001). Yet, whereas sociologists have focused
on social class homophily, they have paid less attention to its flip side—social class
heterophily, or the appreciation of a person whose past or present class position is
different than their own