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109 Examples of Social Constructs

John Spacey, May 24, 2023

Social constructs are concepts that are recognized in a language that don't directly correspond to concrete realities. For example, an apple isn't a social construct because it has a specific physical manifestation but freedom is a social construct because it has no specific tangible presence. The following are common examples of social constructs followed by a few counterexamples and grey areas.

Archetypes	Art
Authority	Beauty
Bias	Borders
Brands	Capitalism
Cities	Citizenship
Civility	Class
Coolness	Creativity
Culture	Customs
Democracy	Education
Equality	Fame
Family	Fashion
Fiction	Fictional characters
Film	Freedom
Friendship	Games
Gender	Government
Hierarchies	Institutions
Intelligence	Jobs
Justice	Knowledge
Language	Leadership
Love	Marriage
Monarchy	Money
Morality	Nationality
Nations	Parenting
Patriotism	Peace
Politeness	Politics
Privacy	Respect
Rights	Safety
Social expectations	Social norms
Social roles	Social status
Society	Sports
Stereotypes	Success
Symbolism	Technology
Trends	Tribalism
Trust	Truth
Work

Counterexamples

The following things aren't socially constructed.

Acceleration	Aging
Air	Climate
DNA	Day and night
Disease	Energy
Gravity	Height
Individual beliefs	Individual creative expressions
Individual emotions and mood	Individual perceptions
Individual thoughts that differ from social constructs	Inner consciousness
Intuition	Length
Light	Material strength
Materials	Math
Measurable physical phenomena	Measurable physical things
Oceans	People
Philosophy	Physical sense and sensation
Science	Self-awareness
Speed	Subjective experiences
Temperature	The Universe
The human brain	Things that are intrinsic to an individual such as personality
Time	Trees
Weather	Weight / Mass

Math and science are considered to have objective foundations such that they aren't based on social constructs.

Philosophy generally seeks objective foundations and isn't socially constructed.

Individual thoughts aren't necessarily social constructs but we all think with language and visual symbols that are social constructed so that our thoughts are inherently rooted in social constructs.

Grey Areas

You could argue that social constructs represent concepts that inherently exist. For example, you could argue that freedom is an inherent state that wasn't invented by society. Alternatively, it is argued that social constructs are simply invented and do not exist in any objective sense. Generally speaking, things that can be explained by philosophy probably aren't social constructs.

Another grey area arises where social constructs have a close relationship with physical realities. For example, a city is a social construct that closely relates to the built environment and people at a place. However, the borders of the city may differ greatly from the expanses of urbanization in an area.

Rule of the Hammer

It is not always clear what is a social construct. For example, you could argue that time is a physical aspect of the universe that is fully measurable. Nevertheless, it is common to claim that it is a social construct. As a rule of thumb, postmodern social sciences tend to view many things as a social construct that hard sciences view as physical realities. This may be due to the law of the hammer whereby social sciences tend to explain everything using social sciences even if there is a more realistic explanation elsewhere.

Social Constructs are Realities

Although social constructs are intangible concepts they are the basis for real world physical realities. For example, "army" is a social construct but you want to get in the way of an army.

It would be naive to think that social constructs are imaginary, easily changed or idealistic. Most of the things that people value and preserve over the distances of time are social constructs. For example, family, nation and wealth are largely social constructs.

Next read: Characteristics of Postmodernism

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