<p>If we take "social class" to mean income/wealth as it's most commonly the case in the West today, then there's even an academic term for the uncommon friendships across such classes, namely "income-bridging". As for their occurence, let me quote you from <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0038038515594975?" rel="nofollow noreferrer">a paper by Léna Pellandini-Simányi</a> (which happens to survey Hungarian society, but I think it easily generalizable across the Western world):</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Many of the income-bridging friendships are between former classmates whose class position diverged, yet who kept
  their old friendship alive. </p>
</blockquote>

<p>Let me tell you from personal experience that this is 100% the case for me, if we take the "income-bridging" to mean a tenfold difference in income. </p>

<p>Also from the same paper on Hungary, this interesting bit regarding the socialist past:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>During socialism, status-bridging friendships were not more frequent in
  Hungary than in capitalist societies, contrary to the image of an egalitarian and open society promoted by political public discourse. [... However] It is important to note that these [socialist-era] studies measured class by education and working position, omitting income.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The last part kinda reminds me of joke/advice along the lines of: don't get a PhD to impress your friends, once you get a PhD most of your friends will have one.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-05T19:34:41.657Z
2018-06-05T19:48:59.850Z
2018-06-05T19:48:59.850Z
got trolled too much this week
<p>Do social classes hang more with the same social class?</p>

<p>Further, how "reasonable" phenomenon this is?</p>

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2018-06-05T18:37:09.690Z
I think the answer is such an obvious "yes" that you'll be hard pressed to find formal studies about it; generally to get funding the question asked needs to exceed the "duh, obvious" level.
got trolled too much this week
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-05T20:10:10.880Z
I've attempted to answer your question here since we have a sociology tag (added) and friendships presumably have a significant psychological component... but I also see the case for your question being only marginally on-topic on P&N. Alas, there isn't a sociology.SE as far as I know.
got trolled too much this week
<sociology><social-desirability>
Do social classes hang more with the same social class?
mavavilj
# Do social classes hang more with the same social class?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-06-02)

Do social classes hang more with the same social class?

Further, how "reasonable" phenomenon this is?

**Tags:** sociology, social-desirability

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I think the answer is such an obvious "yes" that you'll be hard pressed to find formal studies about it; generally to get funding the question asked needs to exceed the "duh, obvious" level.  
> **username_1**: I've attempted to answer your question here since we have a sociology tag (added) and friendships presumably have a significant psychological component... but I also see the case for your question being only marginally on-topic on P&N. Alas, there isn't a sociology.SE as far as I know.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-06-05. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

If we take "social class" to mean income/wealth as it's most commonly the case in the West today, then there's even an academic term for the uncommon friendships across such classes, namely "income-bridging". As for their occurence, let me quote you from [a paper by Léna Pellandini-Simányi](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0038038515594975?) (which happens to survey Hungarian society, but I think it easily generalizable across the Western world):

> Many of the income-bridging friendships are between former classmates whose class position diverged, yet who kept
> their old friendship alive.

Let me tell you from personal experience that this is 100% the case for me, if we take the "income-bridging" to mean a tenfold difference in income.

Also from the same paper on Hungary, this interesting bit regarding the socialist past:

> During socialism, status-bridging friendships were not more frequent in
> Hungary than in capitalist societies, contrary to the image of an egalitarian and open society promoted by political public discourse. [... However] It is important to note that these [socialist-era] studies measured class by education and working position, omitting income.

The last part kinda reminds me of joke/advice along the lines of: don't get a PhD to impress your friends, once you get a PhD most of your friends will have one.


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