Social Distance

Emory S. Bogardus is one of the first scholars to create a scale for measuring social distance among different groups. He defined social distance as “the degree of sympathetic understanding that functions between person and person, between person and group, and between groups”.
His scale comprises of seven items ranging from total acceptance of an out-group to absolute rejection. The first one is determined with acceptance of marriage of a close relative to a member of an out-group, and the last is indicated with request of exclusion of an out-group member.
Lawrence Bobo, American sociologist observes intermarriage as the “last taboo” in race relations (Weaver, 2008).
But Bogardus scale also received some criticisms. Some believe that Bogardus Scale measure psychological distance, not social one. They argue that there are people that like each other very much, but still there is a significant social distance among them.
Another argument by Bogardus is that social distance among different social groups in the United States decreased in the course of 20th century. This argument supported by some other scholars. Recently Weaver (2008) in an essay titled “Social Distance as a Measure of Prejudice among Ethnic Groups in the United States” observed “another decade of decreasing prejudice among ethnic groups”. But he also discussed “despite strong evidence that prejudice has decreased slowly [in the United States], the findings of large and significant differences between almost all of these groups suggest that considerable ethnic prejudice still exists”.
He argues that still different ethnic groups in the US stick to significant differences among themselves. I.e. in a Bogardus scale they usually rank themselves as the most favorable in desirability of ethnic groups as neighbors and acceptability of ethnic groups as marriage partners (Weaver, 2008).
Finally he quotes Smith’s conclusion that the “recognition of the mass of prejudice, discrimination, and inequality that persists [in the US] is sobering and discouraging”.

References

Weaver, Charles N. (2008). Social Distance as a Measure of Prejudice Among Ethnic Groups in the United States. Journal of Applied Social Psychology.38(3). pp. 779-795.