Clem OnojeghuoA recent study, titled “Nepo Babies and the Myth of Meritocracy,” takes a look at the role of privilege in the careers of children born to celebrity parents. Michelle Maroto, a professor in the department of sociology at the University of Alberta, and Jordan Foster, a research fellow at the DeGroote School of Business from McMaster University, co-conducted the study.
The study began in June 2023 and was published on November 18, 2024. In it, Foster and Maroto applied a cultural frame analysis on a sample of 331 articles centred around the representation of celebrity children in media.
“We incorporated things related to this idea of cultural scripts, which really relates to how we talk about and how we understand different phenomena and how those are represented in the media,” Maroto said. “We also brought in literature around aspects of inequality in Canada, how people think of meritocracy, and some of the theories beyond that.”
The researchers also linked this to research about media representations of people from different social classes.
“So, how we represent someone from a poor working class background versus someone from a wealthy background,” Maroto said.
According to Maroto, however, it is not only wealth that plays into the equation, but also public perception.
“We were interested in how other people talked about nepo babies. How the media talked about them and framed them in different ways.”
“Those advantages do matter,” Maroto says
According to Maroto, people talk about nepo babies, but research is just beginning to include the term in their vocabulary. “Nepo babies, that’s a newer concept. But it definitely fits into some of the larger literature around how people from different social class backgrounds are depicted and how people talk about social class more generally,” Maroto said.
The concept of nepotism and nepo babies is widespread now, but the study had to take a more precise approach to definitions regarding what constitutes preferential treatment, according to Maroto.
“Nepotism can work very broadly,” Maroto explained. “It can be a situation where you get handed a company from your parents and you become CEO of that company. Or it could be very small ways like your parents might help you get a little job interview here and there or set you up with connections that way.”
“Those advantages do matter, which means we do need to highlight them,” Maroto said.
According to Maroto, the true extent of this societal interconnectedness of industries is unknown to the general public. “It is surprising how many connections between parents and children there are in Hollywood. Beforehand, I was aware of it, but I hadn’t necessarily noticed so many connections between people,” Maroto said.
According to Maroto, oftentimes the media emphasizes the hard work nepo babies put into their career. However, this conclusion could be curated by the media, she said. Maroto found that many articles “really were justifying nepotism and saying, ‘well, there’s not really anything wrong with it.'”
“In this case, they would really emphasize all the hard work and talent that went into things and really sensationalized celebrity lifestyles versus trying to criticize it or object to it in different ways,” she stated.
“It’s not just hard work that’s going to get ahead. There’s all these structural factors that matter,” Maroto says
According to Maroto, the public generally holds similar views on nepo babies as those expressed in media.
“If we ask people more generally in terms of what it is going to take to get ahead, we’re probably going to hear something related to hard work or talent or education. Not necessarily having those social connections and being born into the right family at the right time, even though they really matter,” Maroto said.
She added that this sociological study focuses on children of celebrities in Hollywood, but its results and those of similar research can potentially be applicable to other social groups and categories.
“This is where there’s research to point this out and say, ‘okay, this is happening over and over again.’ We see this with celebrities. Where else might it be happening? How else does it happen in our lives?” Maroto said.
It is also important to note how the presence of nepo babies reflects on the idea of meritocracy in our society more broadly, according to Maroto. “In many ways it shows that we don’t actually live in a meritocracy. It’s not just hard work that’s going to get ahead. There’s all these structural factors that matter,” Maroto explained.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that if someone comes from a more advantageous background that’s problematic. But maybe if they do come from a background like that, it’s important to think about these things and think about ways to increase opportunities for other people as well,” Maroto added.
