Social fact

A social fact is a way of thinking, feeling or acting that exists outside each individual, precedes them, and exerts a constraint that guides their behaviour. The concept was formulated by Émile Durkheim in The Rules of Sociological Method (1895), where he proposed that sociology should be understood as the empirical study of these phenomena, rather than as the sum of individual behaviours.

For Durkheim, social facts are neither organic nor physical phenomena but representations and actions that exist in collective consciousness. They can take several forms: morphological features that shape society; institutions, already established and recognised; and currents of opinion or fashions, which are more transient. Typical examples include kinship, marriage, language, religion, currency and political organisation. An important feature is that society is regarded as a whole greater than the sum of its members, so its norms are passed on through socialisation and internalised, often without the individual being aware of it.

A simple illustration is the applause at the end of a theatre performance: each spectator knows when to start and when to stop without consulting others, because the practice has been transmitted by their surroundings. Anyone who fails to follow it may face anything from moral disapproval to formal sanction, depending on the seriousness of the breach and the importance the group gives it.

Durkheim also showed the reach of the concept in his study of suicide, comparing rates in Catholic and Protestant communities and attributing the differences to social rather than individual causes. This research was highly influential, although later authors such as Max Atkinson and Jack Douglas pointed out that the statistical differences depended partly on how each community classified deaths, and that analysis must also consider the meanings actors give to their acts.

The concept remains central to sociology and anthropology, though debate continues over whether social facts can be studied with the same objectivity as natural phenomena, given that they are always mediated by cultural interpretations.