A Social Distance Test in the Near East
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The American Journal of Sociology (Chicago, Ill.) 41, 194-204Abstract: Five statements of attitude ranging from friendly to hostile were chosen, from a set of 39 statements by the ratings of 60 judges, as to secure (a) equidistance between statements, (b) minimal ambiguity, (c) maximal reliability. Four tests were constructed applying these five statements to fifteen national groups, eleven religious groups, five economic levels, and three educational levels in the Near East. On correlating the tests as given to 170 freshmen with the results from a repetition after a month, the distances between groups showed reliability correlations varuing from .70 to .96. Tablets of the 174 distances between all pairs of groups and between in-groups and out-groups were computed. This tehcnique yields possibilities of quantitative definitions of various sociological concepts. Economic groups desire to ascend by they prefer to remain in familiar in-groups rather than become too intimate with a very different out-group. An experimental attempt was made to modify religious distances through a college course, The greatest gain in friendliness was toward the Bahá'ís and the Jews.
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Five statements of attitude ranging from friendly to hostile were chosen, from a set of 39 statements by the ratings of 60 judges, as to secure (a) equidistance between statements, (b) minimal ambiguity, (c) maximal reliability. Four tests were constructed applying these five statements to fifteen national groups, eleven religious groups, five economic levels, and three educational levels in the Near East. On correlating the tests as given to 170 freshmen with the results from a repetition after a month, the distances between groups showed reliability correlations varuing from .70 to .96. Tablets of the 174 distances between all pairs of groups and between in-groups and out-groups were computed. This tehcnique yields possibilities of quantitative definitions of various sociological concepts. Economic groups desire to ascend by they prefer to remain in familiar in-groups rather than become too intimate with a very different out-group. An experimental attempt was made to modify religious distances through a college course, The greatest gain in friendliness was toward the Bahá'ís and the Jews.