Socializing, Shared Experience and Mass Culture

Socializing is an important economic activity. A critical input into the activity of socializing is the set of experiences— especially cultural experiences— that is shared by participants. Our model of this link provides an explanation of a number of interesting mass culture phenomena, including certain sorts of conformity, the domination of one culture by another, and the existence of superstars. ________________________ We gratefully acknowledge the …nancial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We would like to acknowledge the comments and criticisms of our colleagues and friends: George Akerlof, Jay Allen, Michael Carter, Je¤ Church, Kim-Sau Chung, Cam Donaldson, Greg Dow, Brian Krauth, Philip Meguire, Gordon Myers, Ravi Pendakur, Allen Shiell, J. F. Wen and Lasheng Yuan. Any mistakes that remain are, of course, our own.