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Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology pp 1776–1778Cite as

Social Distance

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Introduction

Within diverse societies, people from different groups experience connection and solidarity in some social situations and distance and alienation from members of different groups in other situations. The concept of social distance was developed to advance understanding of processes of acceptance and estrangement between groups of people in cities where people who belong to different groups come into regular contact with one another.

Definition

Social distance refers to the extent to which people experience a sense of familiarity (nearness and intimacy) or unfamiliarity (farness and difference) between themselves and people belonging to different social, ethnic, occupational, and religious groups from their own. Social distance is not a static cognitive attribute of acceptance. People can shift and change their sense of affinity or dissonance with particular groups across different contexts. Accordingly, it is more accurate to think of social distancingas a dynamic social...

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Darrin Hodgetts & Ottilie Stolte

Authors
  1. Darrin Hodgetts
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  2. Ottilie Stolte
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Darrin Hodgetts .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Thomas Teo

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Hodgetts, D., Stolte, O. (2014). Social Distance. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_559

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_559

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5582-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5583-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Sciences

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