Idea that success is based on 'survival of the fittest'?

• A. New Negro
• B. Social Gospel
• C. Social Darwinism
• D. Lynching

Answer: (C)

Social Darwinism is the idea that success in society comes from natural competition and “fitness,” so the idea of survival of the fittest is applied to people, groups, and systems. This view extends Darwin’s ideas of natural selection into social life, arguing that those who thrive do so because they are inherently more capable, and that government intervention—like welfare or subsidies—would interfere with natural outcomes. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States, proponents used this to justify laissez-faire capitalism, racial hierarchies, and imperialism by portraying poverty and hardship as natural results of inherent differences rather than consequences of policy or structure. The other terms don't fit this concept: New Negro relates to Black pride and cultural assertion in the Harlem era; the Social Gospel focuses on applying Christian ethics to social reform; and lynching refers to violent racial terror, not a theory about why people succeed or fail.