ABSTRACT
Snobbery THE desire to emulate one's betters has been a most potent, perhaps the most potent, force in the diffusion of customs. Yet i t has received scarcely any notice from sociologists. Why ?
In the first place we are not honest with ourselves. Few like to admit that they adopt new ways because they want to rise to a higher status or fear td drop to a lower one-in short, that they are snobs. It is especially difficult to admit as much in these days of equalitarianism, when only low people admit that they have betters, and it is part of the social rise to recognise no superiors.
