Social conditioning

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Social conditioning refers to the sociological phenomenological process of inheriting tradition and gradual cultural transmutation passed down through previous generations. Manifestations of social conditioning are vast, but they are generally categorized as social patterns and social structures including education, entertainment, popular culture, and family life. Social conditioning can be understood as representing the role of 'Nurture' in the Nature vs. Nurture debate, while the 'Nature' aspect is represented by the phenomena described by sociobiology.

In more simpler terms, social conditioning is something that homogenizes a large amount of people into a certain distinctive mold; for example, people who style/dress in nearly identical ways can be seen as products of social conditioning. Another example is this seemingly intangible expectation/pressure for people to look certain ways, buy certain things, behave certain ways in order to appeal to other people. If people believe they need to do those things in order to be adequate, it may also be considered as a certain level of social conditioning.