Social determinism

Social determinism is the theory that social interactions and constructs alone determine individual behavior (as opposed to biological or objective factors).

Consider certain human behaviors, such as committing murder, or writing poetry. A social determinist would look only at social phenomena, such as customs and expectations, education, and interpersonal interactions, to decide whether or not a given person would exhibit any of these behaviors. They would discount biological and other non-social factors, such as genetic makeup, the physical environment, etc. Ideas about nature and biology would be considered to be socially constructed.

The socially determined actions of an individual can be influenced by forces that control the flow of ideas. By creating an ideology within the society of the individual, the individual's actions and reactions to stimuli are predetermined to adhere to the social rules imposed on him/her. Ideologies can be created using social institutions such as schooling, which "have become the terrain upon which contending forces express their social and political interest" (Mayberry 3), or the mass media, which has "significant power in shaping the social agenda and framing of public opinion to support that agenda" (Colaguori 35).

By creating a social construction of reality, these forces directly create a hegemonic control over the future of individuals who feel like the social construct is natural and therefore unchangeable. Their actions become based in the context of their society so that, even if they possess an innate talent for a sport, if the social construction implies that their race is unathletic in general, or their nation or state does not produce athletes, they do not include the possibility of athleticism in their future. Their society has successfully determined their actions.

Social determinism can favor a political party's agenda by setting social rules so that the individual considers the party's agenda to be morally correct, an example being the 2010 G20 summit riots in Toronto. The media, controlled by corporations and the governments with agendas of their own, publicizes the riots as violent and dangerous, but the goal of the rioters, to rebel against those whose position in power enables them to abuse the system for personal gain, is lost because the focus is on the violence. The individuals' view on the subject are then directly influenced by the media and their reactions are predetermined by that social form of control. "We have been taught to think that censorship is the main mechanism of how the media uses information as a form of social control, but in fact what is said, and how it is selectively presented, is a far more powerful form of information control." (Colaguori 35)

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