Answer: Social Facts is a theory created by Émile Durkheim.
Social facts are ways of acting, thinking and feeling that are generalized, repeated in all members of a specific society or community. Not every repeating habit, however, can be considered a social fact. Sleeping and eating, for example, are actions we all practice, but they are part of the biological universe - they are, therefore, a matter for the natural sciences. In addition to generality, two central characteristics defined by the essence of social facts: their capacity for coercion and their externality in relation to the individual.
Social facts impose on us. These are behaviors and habits that seem to emanate from our personal will, but are actually imposed. If we do not feel this imposition it is because we are so accustomed to them that force is not needed. Just transgress what is determined by the social fact that we soon feel its power of contention. Often, these ways of acting and thinking are translated into a set of official normal, such as laws. In this case the coercion occurs clearly and ostensibly through penalties.
I like this theory, most of us do not really know how some impositions are born, some girls do not even like dolls but they feel wrong if they liked cars, or toys that are considered for boys.
