For almost two centuries Who’s Who has catalogued the aristocratic and highbrow “recreations” of Britain’s elite, but many are now striving to convey a life more ordinary, it seems. Researchers examining entries in the establishment bible, have found a correlation between elites embracing the more common pursuits of football and pop music at the same time as rising inequality. As the top 1% of the population pulls economically further ahead from the rest, elites, it would appear, are keen to stress their “ordinariness” as they become increasingly sensitive to public opinion, and afraid of being labelled “snobbish, self-interested and out of touch”. Academics analysed the recreations listed of more than 70,000 entrants in Who’s Who since 1897, as well as the musical choices of more than 1,000 guests on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Over the 120-year period, they found a significant shift from traditional aristocratic pursuits, such as hunting and opera, to more “everyman” interests of family and pets. The trend was particularly marked in the past 30 years. The research was conducted by Dr Sam Friedman, an associate professor at the department of sociology at the London School of Economics, and Dr Aaron Reeves, a senior research fellow at Oxford University’s department of social policy and intervention. They found elites were more recently adopting a blend of the highbrow and ordinary, suggesting an attempt to find commonality with the rest of the population, while still signifying their eliteness. It was most clear from the 1990s onwards, said Friedman, “coinciding neatly with the continuing rise of the top 1%. Of course, this is only an association. Yet, we would speculate that these patterns may be connected. “Put simply, as elites have pulled away economically, there is mounting evidence that they are increasingly insecure about their moral legitimacy, and increasingly sensitive to public concern they are snobbish, self-interested and out of touch.” How elites presented their cultural lives had become a key PR battleground, he said. “Performing ordinariness may provide a very effective means of shoring up authenticity in an era of rising inequality.” Friedman likened it to Boris Johnson declaring his hobby of making model buses during last year’s Conservative leadership campaign, “when he actually enjoys incredibly highbrow painting and Greek literature”, which he chose not to talk about. Reeves said it mattered what people played on Desert Island Discs, which was an even more public performance of cultural identity. “Tony Blair famously convened a focus group – as he did for many things – to help him calculate what to play,” he said. Examining Who’s Who, researchers found three distinct historical periods. In the 19th century, landed gentry pursuits of hunting, shooting, polo and sailing were common, influenced by the “season” in the elite social calendar. At the turn of the 20th century, as “nouveau riche” industrialists infiltrated high society, the elite turned to London-centric theatre, ballet, classical music, literature and opera, influenced in particular by the Bloomsbury Group, which included figures such as Virginia Woolf. The third phase began in the 1950s, when the art world legitimised popular cultural forms, alongside a generational decline in snobbery and deference, Friedman and Reeves said in their paper. That phase first reveals a rise in entries mentioning football, cinema, and mundane practices like spending time with family, friends and pets. Reeves said: “The move towards mundane and everyday leisure pursuits doesn’t necessarily mean elites are actually becoming ordinary, of course.”More, it revealed how they wished to present themselves. Researchers found traditional aristocratic recreations, like horse-riding and polo, were still mentioned alongside the more commonplace. Elites were, perhaps, trying to forge a sense of commonality and connection, added Friedman. “And the way they do that is to try to cultivate a cultural profile that they feel looks like the ‘everyman’.” There was also a trend towards humour in listings, for example, “loud music, strong cider”. Who’s Who, which has been published annually since 1849, was an “unrivalled” record from which to analyse how elites signalled their superior social position via the consumption of culture, the research states. Just 0.05% of the UK population was featured. Part of its appeal was its understanding of eliteness as not necessarily confined to the landed or wealthy. Half of entrants are included automatically on attaining prominent public positions, such as MPs, peers, FTSE 100 chief executives. The other half are chosen by a board based on prestige, influence or fame. The academics’ paper From Aristocratic to Ordinary: Shifting Modes of Elite Distinction is published in American Sociological Review.