What factors do you think contribute to perceptions of social class?

Question

Not wealth, breeding, etc, but visible things, evident only from walking past someone on the street, that cause you to make assumptions about their socioeconomic status.

Answer 1

Dress, I think, is the most obvious one, but every little thing makes a difference. Are they solo, or in a group? Or are they talking on a cell phone? or a bluetooth? or walking a dog? (What kind of dog?) If they're talking, what's the tenor of the conversation? Loud, quiet, polite, obscene? Body language, posture? etc.

Race/skin color is the second obvious factor, at least in the U.S....we still do tend to equate "black" with "lower class" and "white" with "upper class," or at least middle class. (As per your pictures.) I think--I *think*--that dress is now a more important factor, though: if the two people in those pictures switched clothes and adopted the opposite body language, I'd immediately assume that the black guy was upper-class and the white guy was lower-class, without a second thought.

Skin color remains a factor in its own right, though, as evidenced by the prevalence of DWB stops and continued subtle discrimination in housing and employment (and even things as simple as hailing a cab). A lot of that comes from equating "black" with the threat of crime rather than a particular socioeconomic class, but that's a nitpicky distinction.