07/02/2018 17 546 1 Igor

Psychology and society

The word "snobbery" is quite rare in oral speech, in contrast to the phenomenon that denotes it. Modern society is literally permeated with arrogant people who consider themselves superior to others. This is one of the manifestations of snobbery. Let's figure out what it means in simple words and it's good or bad to be a snob.

Content:

What is snobbery?

For any society, stratification is characteristic - people belong to the upper and lower strata.

Snobbery- this is a phenomenon associated with the intentions and desires of those who belong to the lower strata of society to present themselves as representatives of the higher circles, noble estates. It is impossible to understand the meaning of this word without considering the concept of "snob", which exists in many languages ​​of the world.

Snob- this is a person, a subject who has a desire to get into the high society by any means and means. Snobbery is the manner of behavior and the way of his thoughts, his worldview, characteristic of a snob. It manifests itself in the following:

• in a deliberate demonstration by a person of his significance, importance and uniqueness;
• in an emphatic expression of the manners characteristic of people from high society;
• in false and artificial sophistication, manifested in: manner of dressing, behavior at the table, etiquette, culture of communication, etc.;
• in ranking all people as belonging to the upper and lower strata and in the inability to communicate with everyone equally;
• in the habit of a person to always teach others, give advice, criticize them and consider their point of view the only true one;
• in admiring people from high society and carefully imitating their mannered behavior, way of life, habits and preferences, in a selective attitude towards people: disregard for those who occupy a lower position in society, and fawning over those whose circle of friends wants to enter;
• in an effort to pass for a person with a high level of intellectual development or authority in any field of human knowledge;
• strongly dependent on the opinions of others;
• in the arrogance of a person based on the fact that he belongs to a special clan or collective;
• in the snob's confidence that everyone should respect, love and appreciate him.

There are several optionsthe origin of this word:

1. In the 80s of the 18th century, a shoemaker or his apprentice was called a snob. This concept denoted a commoner who sought to adopt aristocratic manners.
2. The word "snob" refers to an earlier period and comes from the Latin abbreviation "s.nob." (from Latin " sine nobilitate"- ignoble origin). Snobs were called students who studied at Oxford and Cambridge universities, who had a non-noble origin. They were marked in the lists with this abbreviation, which meant a ban on their attending receptions, meetings, holidays, at which the king was supposed to be present. These students were much richer than the nobles, therefore, imitating them, they sought, the lack of a noble upbringing and secular manners, to make up for the simulated and complete bad taste of luxury. Such behavior later became known as snobbery.
3. According to the popular point of view, snobs in slang were called students of non-noble blood at Eton University in 1810-1820 of the XIX century, who were opposed to students of noble birth (from the English "noble" - nobleman).

In the modern sense, the word "snobbery" has been used in vocabulary since the beginning of the twentieth century.

Causes and signs of snobbery

Snobbery is not an innate personality trait. His appearance is due to various reasons.:

• parental attitudes and family values, among which an important place belonged to snobbery;
• the desire to escape from the outback, the provinces and become a city dweller;
• the impact on the person of the work team, which is saturated with snobbish views;
• manifestations of selfish character traits, when a person fundamentally ignores the needs and emotions of others;
• limited and inflexible thinking, horizons, which leads to the formation of narrow views and attaching importance and value to a certain manner of behavior and character traits;
• very low self-esteem and attempts by a person to unnaturally raise his status in the eyes of the public, humiliating and offending others.

Signs of snobbery:

• unreasonable ambition, arrogance and arrogance of a snob, repelling other people from him and causing discontent;
• a person's point of view about his own exclusivity and the conviction that he deserves more respect than all other people;
• exalting oneself over others;
• lack of empathy and empathy for the problems of others;
• a dismissive attitude towards those who do not correspond to the ideas and level of intellectual development of the snob;
  playing in public, demonstrative sophistication;
• unshakable conviction in one's own rightness;
• attributing oneself to the representatives of the elite, the beau monde, the upper class, a special clan;
• unequal attitude towards people of different status in society;
• violation of decency, bad taste, tactless and inadequate behavior in society.

Types of snobbery depends on the sphere of human activity in which it develops:

• Aesthetic;
• Intellectual;
• Professional;
• The snobbery of the elite, the rich, people of special status in society.

Is being a snob good or bad?

The word "snobbery" has had a negative connotation ever since its first use. Snobs have many negative properties of the human character. It is generally accepted in society that being a snob is bad and ugly. After all, they often behave inappropriately. The simplicity and sincerity of human communication, both with superiors and with subordinates, is not peculiar to them and is unnatural. They always divide people in close circle into worthy and unworthy of their attention. The only nuance with which the use of the word "snobbery" in recent times is associated is giving it some sarcasm, a small amount of irony. There are many people in the modern world who are happy and proud to call themselves snobs.

Psychological science considers a snob as a person whose visual vector predominates. They are aesthetes, subtle connoisseurs of all that is beautiful, surrounding themselves with beautiful objects and lovely interlocutors. They know how to see the beauty of the world around them, they are regular visitors to museums, various exhibitions, beauty contests, theaters and art galleries. They are disgusted with various forms of manifestation of ignorance, the fruits of low-grade creativity and informal trends in art. This is a virtue, a positive feature of snobbery and leads to adverse consequences.

Every snob considers himself to be a special, priority social stratum, cream of society. Referring themselves to the elite, the highest rank, all those who go beyond this circle, snobs do not put in anything, trying to humiliate and prove their wretchedness and failure. They call other people second-rate, unworthy of respect and worthless. Everything new, non-standard, unusual, contrary to their usual view, they vehemently condemn and reject. They convince everyone that only the classics in culture and customs that have been established over the centuries can be awarded the attention of a modern cultured and educated person. Despite the fact that their personal intellectual knowledge in the field of cultural studies is very insignificant. A snob is a rather pretentious type of person, but with a very miserable inner potential and energy.

Rules of conduct with a snob:

1. When meeting a person who is dismissive of you, trying to humiliate or insult you, try not to confront or communicate with him. He will not accept an explanation for his wrongness, and if you pay your attention to him, this will lead you to mental distress and devastation, which is not a reasonable solution in this situation.
2. Try to take it with a little humor, as temporary unpleasant weather conditions.
3. Dignity and adequate behavior are your main weapons in a fight with a snob.
4. Never stoop to insults and the level of the enemy.

Snob and prude - the same thing?

These are two words with completely different meanings. Their only similarity is that both of them are dismissive of others and exalt themselves above others.

Distinctive features of these two concepts are presented in the table.

AT important! Snobs present themselves as more highly educated, intelligent and cultured people. In the professional field of activity, snobbery often manifests itself through star disease. The emergence of falsehood, megalomania, boasting, pomposity, arrogance and conviction of one's superiority are the main reasons underlying the effect of snobbery.

It is impossible to understand what snobbery is without considering the word "snob" in detail. Once it meant only those who imitated representatives of the noble classes, but themselves belonged to the lower of them. In the past, the stratification of society was especially noticeable, although, of course, it is still present to a large extent today. Snobs are precisely those who wanted to seep into the high society by any means.

In the future, the "snob" expanded somewhat. So they began to call those who imitated the aristocrats in manners and behavior, and showed arrogance towards their equals. This is the kind of person for whom it is important to seem like someone especially intelligent, even if he is not. The snob has big claims, but at the same time, negligible potential.

Snobbery

Snobbery, as a rule, is understood as a deliberate demonstration of one's significance, an emphasized manifestation of one's own manners. Simulated and deliberate sophistication, which is noticeable in everything: how a person dresses, how he holds a tea cup, behaves at the table,. A snob can be well educated, but don't expect pleasant conversation from him if he decides that you are no match for him. Snobbery is the lack of the ability to communicate with all people equally, it is the ranking of others and the appropriate treatment of them.

If you meet a snob who is acting disparagingly towards you, try to just ignore him. Explaining something to him is extremely difficult, and getting upset is not the most reasonable solution. Think of it as bad weather. You don't get mad at rain or snow. Hold on with dignity, do not allow yourself to be insulted, but you should not use the "weapon" of the enemy.

From the point of view of etiquette, snobbery is a violation of decorum and bad taste. Worthy and sane people are able to behave adequately. They, as a rule, are easy to communicate with both superiors and subordinates, and do not divide others into worthy and unworthy of their attention.

The word "snobbery" has always had a negative connotation, but in the modern world the situation has changed somewhat. Although its meaning has remained the same, the word itself is used with some sarcasm, and there are quite a few people who are happy to call themselves snobs. There is even a periodical "Snob".

The word "snobbery" is not often found in modern speech, but the phenomenon that it denotes can be found in any society. The snob considers himself superior to those around him because of his belonging to a special clan, collective. He believes that he is worthy of respect, although in fact the pride, arrogance and arrogance of a snob push people away from him and cause irritation.

Snobbery - what is it?

Reflecting on snobbery - what it is, one should turn to the etymology of this word. There are different versions regarding the origin of the word "snobbery", but they all boil down to the fact that some person put himself above others. In the vocabulary, this word was fixed in the 18-19 centuries, when they said that snobbery is the desire to belong to high society. Moreover, the snob was often from the simpler strata of the population, but in every possible way he tried to pass for a person from the highest circles.

Snobbery can be defined as ranking people around. Depending on the rank assigned to a person, the snob chooses the manner of communicating with him. His communication is selective: a dismissive manner with those who are lower in rank, and a fawning manner with those whose circle he wants to enter. This behavior can be combined with tactlessness and inadequacy in relation to other people.

Snobbery can develop in one of the areas or combine a complex:

• aesthetic snobbery;
• snobbery of wealthy people;
• professional snobbery.

Aesthetic snobbery - what is it?

By virtue of their profession, people of art are characterized by aesthetic snobbery. They consider themselves more intelligent, intelligent and educated than representatives of other professions. As a result, there is a special stratum of society whose snobbery is pronounced and combined with. The effect of snobbery is the cause of the birth of falsehood, arrogance and self-confidence.

Causes of snobbery

There are various reasons for the appearance of snobbery:

• a family in which everything was saturated with snobbery;
• provincial snobbery may grow out of a desire to escape from the "village" environment;
• collective influence at work;
• selfishness, behind which a person does not see the feelings and desires of other people;
• narrowness and rigidity of thinking, as a result of which the snob considers only certain behavior correct and important and;
• low self-esteem, which a person tries to compensate for by artificially raising his status and humiliating others.

Snobbery - signs

A snob is a person who considers himself exceptional and worthy of more respect than those around him, therefore the main features of a snob are:

• different attitudes towards people of different categories;
• feigned sophistication;
• confidence that only his point of view is the most correct;
• disregard for people who do not correspond to the ideas and intellectual level of a snob;
• identifying oneself with a special clan, an intellectual elite, the cream of society;
• insensitivity to other people's problems and experiences;
• heightened self-esteem.

Snobbery - good or bad?

Snobbery is an ambiguous concept, but sociologists still tend to attribute snobbery to a negative phenomenon in society. According to psychology, snobs are people with a predominant visual vector. They love to surround themselves with beautiful things and nice people. They subtly feel the beauty of nature, like to visit museums, read art books, go to theaters. They do not like uncultured behavior, rudeness, informal trends, low-grade art. This is the positive side of snobbery, but it leads to negative consequences.

Snobs identify themselves as a special, priority class in society. Considering themselves an elite, they can put everyone who does not correspond to their ideas into nothing. Other people for them are second-rate people, worthless and unworthy of attention. In addition, snobs are opponents of everything new, non-standard, non-traditional. They argue that only classical culture and generally accepted traditions are worthy of the attention of an educated person. Although they themselves do not always have real knowledge in the field of culture.

Snobbery and hypocrisy

Snob and hypocrite are two different concepts. They are confused with each other for the reason that both the first and the second consider themselves superior to others and look at others with disdain. Otherwise, these concepts differ. The snob sincerely believes that he is better than others, morally purer and more cultured. He seeks to communicate only with his own kind and tries to meet their standards.

Unlike the snob, the hypocrite does not have certain standards for himself. His demands concern other people whom he wants to teach life, makes remarks to them. A hypocrite is a two-faced person with double standards. He does not see his own mistakes, but he always notices the mistakes and sins of others. He teaches the people around him about life, trying to show himself and those around him his sinlessness, knowledge or high tastes.

Reading time: 2 min

Snobbery is a concept that represents the thoughts and actions characteristic of a snob. Snobbery is, in simple words, excessive arrogance and pride in one's exclusive position (actual, ideal or claimed), which implies admiration for the way and manners that are a reflection of a person's own aspirations. This concept can reflect the high intellectuality of a person, his exceptionally refined taste, well-deserved authority and respect in certain circles, but with the amendment that he will tell about all these achievements himself, and not wait until others notice it.

Snobbery always betrays a person's inconsistency with a particular way of life or society. So wealthy merchants, who surpassed the intelligentsia in their wealth, could easily buy a place among these people. After that, elements of snobbery began to slip in their behavior more and more clearly in attempts to imitate the behavior and manners of secular and educated people, for which there were neither prerequisites, nor sufficient education, nor upbringing. The desire to compensate for the missing skills with a proud appearance, excessive luxury, big expenses, cheeky behavior and other elements that are not directly related to the manifestation of a person’s level are elements of snobbery.

The meaning of the word snobbery was adjusted depending on the era, but the emotional coloring of this personal quality always remained negative. It is always a desire to keep up with the level that a person objectively does not correspond to, and he tries to do this at the expense of external tinsel, and not work on his own personality.

Who is a snob

A snob is a person who belongs to one of the privileged social circles. At the same time, in the context of building a modern society, the boundaries of various levels are becoming more and more blurred, and you can get into one of the circles of the elite without having any money, education, or connections. That is, a snob can feel his pride, being in any social stratum that considers himself an elite, while objectivity is not important for self-perception of being superior to other people.

The snob manifests itself in emphasizing the qualities and behaviors recognized in the selected group. This can be achieved by excessively demonstrative behavior, appropriate clothing and style of conversation. All the brightness of this opposition is intended to emphasize the uniqueness of a person and the eliteness of the group to which he belongs, while the significance of other people's opinions and achievements is assessed as too petty or unworthy.

And snobbery is not synonymous, here the concept of contempt for the rest, not belonging to the class of the chosen people, is closer. He can allow himself unflattering comments, tell people what to do and in every possible way speak negatively about their worldview.

Snobs always talk about their achievements and high traits, which is important, a really modest person will not talk about his modesty, but a spiritual person will reproach others for the lack of spirituality. While such speeches are quite acceptable to a snob, and he will not even think about what the contradiction is. The line of behavior is always demonstrative, bordering on shocking, and if a person considers himself to be among the elite of show business, then the level of shocking can reach those limits where it is already perceived as something ridiculous. Attempts to portray refined taste and refined manners seem organic only to the snob himself, while for people who understand such games they look as implausible as diamonds sold on the market.

It is typical for snobs to visit exhibitions and concerts, various cultural or lounge events to emphasize their uniqueness. The value is not so much the importance of what is happening, as art, but how closed the exhibition will be - and the fewer nominal invitations, the greater the desire of the snob to get there, regardless of their preferences.

All imitation of the tastes of the chosen society is blind, and being alone with yourself or in the company of other people who do not belong to the chosen society, the snob is lost, does not know what line of behavior to choose or what to tell about himself to others. The exclusivity of activities is important to him only while others are around, but he will not do this in his spare time for pleasure. Often this is how high-profile scandals arise with famous personalities who were accidentally noticed in an inappropriate place or in an unworthy occupation in relation to the image that they carefully created.

The importance of feeling your life fades into the background, as well as the search for your true purpose. For a snob, the main thing is to create a favorable external image and carefully maintain it - happiness, confidence, well-being are also not so much sensual categories as moments of complementing the necessary image. As a result, imitation selects individuality and the possibility of creative manifestation of oneself as a person.

Against the background of the hyper-value of one's own image and the chosen group, humiliating behavior and statements about other people and concepts become characteristic. It is not always possible to show one's superiority, only by playing a role well, especially with a lack of objective qualities, therefore snobs often try to rise at the expense of humiliating others, reducing their significance and beauty. So when it is not possible to write a project better than someone else, the snob is likely to choose the tactics of discrediting a person by his intellectual level, no matter how true these conclusions are.

It is important that deep down or in the evening, removing all the masks, a person is still aware of his worthlessness, or at least inconsistency with reality. Under favorable conditions and the firmness of the internal foundations, it is possible to admit this to yourself for a long time, connect others and really engage in self-development. In most cases, this is only a momentary weakness, after which the number of caustic mockery of others increases.

Examples of snobbery

Examples of snobbery are all demonstrative actions and acquisitions, the meaning of which is emphasized. It can be a really expensive house, a plane, a car, necessary for a person so that others understand his merits on a professional path, guess about his intellect and capabilities. But this does not mean that all large purchases will talk about this quality, where there are more cases of buying fakes and counterfeit goods in order to create the appearance of conformity with the circle where the person is.

Remembering that the snob is more pursuing apparent well-being than actual, we can see that a man cannot bear to be among those who wear a gold watch, and he will buy fake ones for himself. A girl, getting into the circle of glamorous friends, can no longer afford to walk in high-quality, but not branded clothes, hence a lot of Chinese fakes appear.

This applies to the material level, but there are also manifestations at the level when a person has chosen a class of scientists or people of art. He will close his own gaps, also focusing on names and labels, that is, the words of a famous professor will be more important to him than personal opinion. The author of the picture will influence the purchase decision much more than his own attitude to the combination of form and color.

Examples of professional snobbery are vivid when a young employee comes to an established team and someone begins to teach him. A distinctive feature will be that the mentor will not help, but each time will use the opportunity to point out the incompetence of the new employee and raise his skills against his background.

There is snobbery based on one's place of birth and residence - one can recall the attitude of metropolitans towards visitors and the interaction of some cities described even in jokes. This assignment of oneself to some class, which does not give formal advantages for more than one decade, causes precisely a large number of snobs. Now, the more people began to move, the less relevant the manifestation of snobbery based on a geographical feature becomes, but at the same time, the influence of fashion and mass media on the formation of the desired image and the desire to match it increases.

Is snobbery good or bad?

There was a perception of snobbery as a negative personality trait. This is due to the unpleasant emotions experienced by society at the sight of cheap deeds, demonstrative behavior and the inner emptiness of snobs. At the same time, from the perspective of building interaction, these are also not the most pleasant people who will favorably treat only those who belong to the circle they have chosen, and even better will be one of the leading personalities there. With all the rest, snobs are treated like the lower class or do not even consider them to be people, they are quite cruel in their comments, experiences from which a person can result in deep psychological trauma.

But if you think a little more seriously, then in the end, snobbery does not bring anything bad within the framework of the development of culture as a whole. These people do not accept the lower manifestations of a person and will stop this, both in their own behavior and in those around them. They always contribute to the development of culture, even if they are not part of it or do not understand why the financing of this performance is so important in terms of youth development. Snobs will always strive to look beautiful and surround themselves with beautiful things - a matter of taste can be edited with the support of stylists or developed independently over time.

In any case, this is a desire for culture and beauty, which is not characteristic of all people. And a very active position in this matter helps to revive lost cultural layers, discover new modern talents, and develop society as a whole. This moment cannot be ignored, since many really sensitive people who belong to the elite classes on their merits and, in fact, do not strive for such an intensive development of their niche as the snobs who burst in there, bought their own places and maybe that is why they value development so much. as a way to stay.

Speaker of the Medical and Psychological Center "PsychoMed"

It's not often you hear someone being called a snob these days. Rather, the term is used in the literature. Snobbery - what does it mean? Surely each of us has met a person who, as it were, boasts of his “not like everyone else” position. He is arrogant towards people who speak differently from him, read other books, listen to different music, etc. We call such a person a snob and feel some kind of falseness in his behavior, as if he put on a mask of an intellectual and an aristocrat . What are the main characteristics of such a person?

Snob Characteristics

Snobbery - what is this "beast"? The main category that the snob operates on is high society. Such a person simply dreams of being a part of him and does everything to get closer to such people. The snob imitates manners, habits, tastes, which, in his opinion, are inherent in the elite. Although such a person himself does not belong to representatives of high society, he treats "mere mortals" mercilessly.

The meaning of the word "snobbery" has a mostly negative connotation due to the arrogant attitude of a person towards those who are not like him. The lower class, according to the snob, does not intellectually reach his level. Here it is necessary to remember who was originally called that. The first meaning is literally "shoemaker's apprentice", then it expanded to "commoner". Further, the concept of "snob" became associated with a commoner who imitates aristocrats with his behavior. Thus, the term itself characterizes a snob as a person who wants to get closer to the upper community, who hates his origin and in every possible way despises any of its manifestations.

Psychological aspects of snobbery

Why is snobbery so remarkable? What is this phenomenon in the modern world? Although this concept is not widely used in ordinary speech, the snobs themselves are quite common. They claim some kind of exclusivity in everything they do. But after all, there are people with the same interests and hobbies as a snob, but unlike the latter, they do not boast of their addictions. The fact is that snobbery is an ostentatious phenomenon. Such a person strives with all his might to show his exclusivity. He denies himself and tries to imitate some ideal. Deep dissatisfaction with their position and even become the causes of snobbery.

Snobbery - what is it in terms of benefit and harm?

At first glance, this phenomenon has only negative aspects. The snob exudes contempt for people who are different from him, while he himself is not something remarkable. However, the benefits and harms of snobbery in society cannot be judged one-sidedly. First, the phenomenon characterizes society as class-separated. This means that there is a gap between the so-called upper and lower society. After all, snobbery is nothing but a sophisticated form of envy. Secondly, snobs (whatever the motives underlying their behavior) strive for the manifestation of intelligence and aristocracy. And this supports to some extent the cultural level of society.