According to anthropology, which is the science that studies man, the social image is a characteristic that describes the way in which a related human group is observed from another perspective. While in sociology, man is defined as a social phenomenon that interprets before the environment in which a certain social fact inhabits, it is then understood that the social image is a review that brings together the characteristics that distinguish a certain population.
When speaking of social image, principles are taken into account, which would roughly be the culture, traditions, customs and forms of daily life of a group of individuals that coexist in a given place. The social image always precedes the group, taking it as a starting point when describing it or presenting references regarding its notable characteristics.
The behaviors of individuals in a society, are shaping in specific features the social image that the rest of the population this particular will have. For example, the social image of the millenary Chinese population is extremely extensive, but the first thing that usually comes to mind are its main features, or those that have reached the highest level of notoriety, in this case they would be constancy in work, its cultural fidelity, the martial disciplines, its culinary arts characteristics, its superb architecture, and the most outstanding thing is the adaptability that despite its cultural fidelity, this population possesses to perpetuate itself successfully in a changing world.
It is then said that the social image can be what a social group projects to others. This descriptive characteristic can be used as a tool in different branches that do studies on humanity and its related. The knowledge of ancient civilizations has a description based on the social image that they projected as group entities. It can be taken into account whether the population was, for example, peaceful or bellicose, prosperous or miserable, studying their behavioral annals, thus managing to conceive their social image in an objective way or as close to it as possible.
