The concept of elective affinity, originally derived from chemistry by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and later incorporated into sociological theory by Max Weber, represents a profound analytical tool for understanding the complex interplay between ideas, social structures, and individual actions.

Weber does not define it, but one could propose the following definition, based on the weberian use of the notion: elective affinity is a process through which two cultural forms – religious, intellectual, political or economical – who have certain analogies, intimate kinships or meaning affinities, enter in a relationship of reciprocal attraction and influence, mutual selection, active convergence and mutual reinforcement.