Reward Systems in Art, Science, and Religion

Diana Crane is an American behavioral scientist who looked at how reward systems from art, science, and religion affect cultural innovations. Here are a few points that stood out to me:

• Cultural innovators (i.e. religious leaders, artists, scientists, associations, etc.) who have control over reward systems set "cognitive and technical norms" and allocate "symbolic and material rewards". In other words, those in control establish the ideology and methodology as well as how one may be rewarded for conforming to said system (720).
• Avante-garde art is an example of a "semi-independent reward system" in which artists  establish norms, critics reward symbolically, and consumers reward materially (721).
• "Innovators in independent and semi-independent reward systems typically work in fairly cohesive communities" (723).
• Crane cites the French Academy of the nineteenth century as an example of a reward system with high continuity and little variety, which means that its gatekeepers restricted the range of innovation through specific objectives. The French Academy at this time sought to train and reward art students who created in a classical, formal style. Exclusion from the academy or deviation from academy standards resulted in a lack of rewards (726).

This article makes we wonder what type of reward systems I conform to. Do I contribute to cultural innovation? Who are the gatekeepers of the reward systems I am a part of?

Diana, C. (1976). Reward Systems in Art, Science, and Religion. The American Behavioral Scientist. 19(6). 719-734.