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Constructing Reality

• In 1893, the U.S. Supreme Court had to determine if a tomato was a fruit or vegetable due to tax laws on imported vegetables.
• The Nix family, tomato importers, argued it was a fruit (not taxed), while botanists define fruit by its role in plant reproduction (containing seeds).
• Legally, tomatoes were ruled fruits and the Nix family had to pay the tax.
• The tomato's categorization impacts people's experience with it.
• The definition of reality affects how people experience it.

Culture

• Humans add meaning, importance, and value to reality.
• Culture: Shared ideas, objects, practices, and bodies within a group.

Socialization

• Socialization: The lifelong learning process to become members of cultures.
• Through this, people become culturally competent.
• Culturally competent: Understanding and navigating cultures easily.

Social Construction

• The meaning of a tomato varies; it is a social construct.
• Social construct: A shared reality interpretation varying across time/space.
• Social constructs originate from social construction.
• Social construction: Layering objects with ideas, folding concepts, and building connections.
• Members of the same culture typically share similar social constructs.
• Human communication relies on social constructs, including language.
• Social constructs can become social facts.
• Money is an example; it's made up but powerful and coercive as a means of survival.

Types of Social Constructs

• Signifiers: Things that stand for other things (e.g., emojis, diamond rings).
• Categories: Subsets of things believed to be similar (e.g.,