# Social Construct --- A **social construct**, or **social construction** is an idea that has been created and accepted by the people in a society. It is a very important concept in socioloigy and [[life-span development|human development]]. >[!quote] Dr. Paul Boghossian of NYU \[To say something is a social construct] is to say: This thing **could not have existed had we not built it**; and we **need not have built it at all**, at least **not in its present form**. That's not to say social constructs aren't *real*. They're very real in that blindly following them, knowingly or not, has very real life consequences. ## Some Significant Social Constructs - [[Race]] is a social construct that divides people into groups based on ultimately superficial aspects that are deemed imporant. - **Ethnicity** is distinct from race, but also a [[social construct]] that describes a group of people whos ancestors all come from the same region of the world. - [[culture]] - [[gender]] ___