Soft science fiction

Soft science fiction is the category defined in contrast to hard science fiction, and the term carries two different definitions: fiction built on the soft sciences (psychology, sociology, political science) rather than the hard ones, and fiction that prioritizes human emotions over scientific accuracy or plausibility. Ursula K. Le Guin, Frank Herbert's Dune and Ray Bradbury are the standard examples.

The boundary with hard SF is explicitly loose: a tendency, not a strict subgenre. For serial writers that makes it a tagging decision more than a rule set, and the working contrast between the two camps is in the guide to hard vs soft science fiction.