The following two paragraphs are lifted from my senior thesis in sociology at the University of Mississippi. That paper was published in an online journal, Social Science Paper Publisher in 1997. That was one of the first online peer-reviewed journals I remember seeing as a budding researcher. Sadly, it no longer exists.
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Robert E. Park first defined the term and concept of “social distance” while serving as a Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago. The “American Negro” problem, and the strife caused by the “yellow devils” from the Orient led many social scientists to begin the study of prejudice and racial attitudes. The
Negro began to dislike “his place” in society, and Asian immigrants were just beginning to compete for scarce resources in society. Dr. Park defined social distance as, “the grades and degrees of understanding and intimacy which characterize personal and social relations generally” (Park, 1924).
Emory S. Bogardus, professor at the University of Southern California, developed the first scale widely accepted as a reliable indicator of social distance. Bogardus’ scale was scrutinized by 100 academia, who rated sixty statements that expressed social distance. The judges ranked each statement on a scale from one to seven, one being the least social distance, and seven being the most social distance. Scores for each statement were added, and the arithmetic mean of each statement was recorded. The statement receiving a mean closest to one was judged to express the least social distance. The statement with the mean closest to the value of two was judged to express the next level of social distance, and so on (Bogardus, 1936).
This construct has fascinated me since I discovered it as an undergraduate student. I’ve used the Bogardus Scale in research, presentations, and training sessions across the globe. As we enter an election year in the United States, my interest is rekindled. To wit, I’ve put together a questionnaire to gauge social distance. The research project and the (anonymous) linked questionnaire are both approved by Lamar University’s Institutional Review Board ( IRB-FY20-135). It should take about 11 minutes to complete the questionnaire. I appreciate your support of this ongoing research project.
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