Abstract Many scholars see social mobility as playing a key role in explaining the emergence of cultural omnivores. In this paper, we discuss three versions of the social mobility argument and assess their empirical validity using recent survey data on visual arts consumption in the UK. By applying diagonal reference models to our data, we show that none of the three versions of the social mobility argument receives empirical support. We find that both parents' and respondent's educational level affect visual arts consumption, with the weight of the former being about a third in magnitude as the latter. There is no difference in the relative weights of origin and destination between the upwardly mobile and the downwardly mobile. Finally, socially mobile individuals are actually less omnivorous than those who are intergenerationally stable in advantaged positions. In light of these findings, we argue that social mobility does not explain the emergence of visual arts omnivores in the UK. * Early versions of this paper were presented at the Spring 2014 meeting of ISA RC28, th
