SOCIAL FACT: CONCEPT, EXAMPLES AND APPLICATIONS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

A social fact is known as any idea or human behavior that is generated from life in community and that is external to the individual itself. This concept was coined by the French sociologist Émile Durkheim in his book The Rules of the Sociological Method (1895) and covers most of the phenomena that occur within a society.

An example of this type of behavior is the applause that occurs after the performance of a song in a musical concert or theater performance. It is a collective response learned unconsciously, which is part of the culture and exists outside of individual consciousness.

Clapping during a musical concert is a social fact. Source: pixabay.com

In this way, social facts refer to ways of acting, thinking and feeling present in a community and influenced by it and its context. They form the structures, norms and values ​​that govern life in society.

Concept of social fact in Durkheim

Durkheim defined the social fact as “any way of acting, fixed or not, that can exert an external coercion on the individual and that is general in the entire scope of a given society and that, at the same time, has its own, independent existence of their individual manifestations ”.

For the French sociologist, these ideas and behaviors were external to the person, but at the same time they shaped him and predisposed him to act in a certain way.

According to him this occurred based on the cultural precepts that each human being was incorporating throughout their socialization process and that consciously or unconsciously influenced their behavior and thinking.

Basic concepts of the social fact

From Durkheim's definition, 3 basic characteristics of social facts emerge:

1- They are external to the individual: these thoughts and behaviors are not part of the biological or psychological constitution of the person. On the contrary, they come from the outside and are given in a group way by tradition, custom or repetition.

2- They are collective: these are ways of acting that are shared by the vast majority of the members of a community and cannot be understood as individual manifestations.

3- They are coercive: these ways of feeling, thinking and acting are imposed by society and, if this “obligation” did not exist, individuals would not possibly manifest this type of behavior.

Social fact in sociology

Sociology is the science that analyzes the structure and functioning of human communities and, for Durkheim, social facts should be its object of study.

To do this, he postulated examining them through an empirical method, based on observation and experimentation, that was as close as possible to those used in the exact sciences.

The French thinker defined these ideas and behaviors as "things", because they were external to each individual and because their evaluation could not be reduced to the person, as they were general for the whole society.

In this sense, for his study he mentioned the need to discard all preconceptions, avoiding prejudices and subjective sensations.

In addition, he understood that this method should test his hypotheses through logical reasoning, the use of statistics, observation of reality and empirical verification.

Types of social facts

From a sociological point of view, social facts are classified into 3 groups:

-Morphological: covering those behaviors that order the participation of people in the different settings of the community.

-Institutions: made up of actions that are an integral part of life in society.

-Current of opinion: composed of fashions, ideas and generally fleeting tendencies that lead to take a subjective position on a certain topic.

Social fact in law

Law is the set of principles and norms that regulate human relations within a community in a given time and space.

It can be understood as a social fact, since its rules and values ​​are collective, external to the individual and imposed in a coercive way.

It is an essential part of life in society, since its bases identify and sustain the order and prevailing culture within a given population. In addition, the law is responsible for molding the members of a community and predisposes them to act and think in a certain way that is related to the group.

When an individual objects to this collective mandate, he is generally punished. Depending on the severity of the act, you can receive a moral disapproval, be censored, set aside, exiled or sanctioned civilly or criminally.

Ultimately, social life is not conceived without the existence of a legal system and, therefore, the law is present in every human group. In turn, when individuals accept it as a social fact, this implies that they recognize themselves as members of a certain community.

Examples of social facts

Demonstrations as a form of protest are a social fact. Source: pixabay.com

All conventions, legal precepts, and moral obligations are examples of social facts.

Most people, as children, are taught to read and write a certain language, to eat with cutlery, to be respectful to their elders and to go to school to educate themselves and train.

Later they also learn that they must work for a living, to pay for their purchases with money, to dress in a certain way, to pay their taxes and to comply with contracts and conjugal and family duties.

All these behaviors that the individual performs almost naturally are social facts that are not his own, but have been "imposed" by the community where he lives.

Other examples are certain customs that are part of a religion, such as the fact of crossing themselves or making the sign of the cross of Catholics in certain situations.

Finally, national fervor and the show of respect for the flag and other national symbols, demonstrations as a form of protest, and racist and xenophobic ideas against foreigners that arise in certain communities are also social facts.

References

1. Durkheim, Émile (1895). the rules of the sociological method. Fund of Economic Culture. Mexico.
2. Gane, M. (1988). On Durkheim's Rules of Sociological Method. Routledge. London. England.
3. Vázquez Gutiérrez, JP (2012) The conception of social fact in Durkheim: from material reality to the world of collective representations. Ibeoamerican University. Mexico.
4. Lukes, S. (1984). Émile Durkheim. His life and his work. Historical-critical study. Sociological Research Center, Siglo XXI. Madrid. Spain.
5. Social fact, Wikipedia. Available at: Wikipedia.org