Table of Contents
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Description | The Social Distance Scale (Taylor, 1960) is a questionnaire designed to measure social attitudes, including hostility or friendliness, toward minority and authority groups. The instrument consists of two subscales: one for minority group acceptance and another for authority group acceptance. It evaluates the willingness of individuals to accept members of various groups in different social contexts, such as close kinship, neighborhood, or country residency. Ethnic minority groups assessed include Negroes, Turks, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Hindus, while authority groups include Fascists, Nazis, and similar organizations. Although the scale has limitations, it serves as a supplementary tool for evaluating social attitudes. |
| Author | Irving A. Taylor |
| Purpose | To measure social attitudes, specifically overt hostility or friendliness, toward minority and authority groups. |
| Construct | Authority Group Acceptance; Minority Group Acceptance; Social Attitudes |
| Instrument Type | Rating Scale |
| Administration Method | Paper-based questionnaire with a checklist format. |
| Number of Items | 10 |
| Population Group | Adults aged 18 and older, including college students. |
| Population Details | Male and female college students. |
| Reliability | The correlation between the Minority subscale and the Authority subscale was positive, with a contingency coefficient of 0.25 and a corrected coefficient of 0.37. |
| Validity | Not reported. |
| DOI | 10.1037/t06926-000 |
| Keywords | Attitudes Measures, Ethnic Minority Groups, Racial Attitudes, Social Distance Scale, Social Perception, Test Development, Extreme Social Attitudes, Extreme Liberalism, Extreme Conservatism. |
| Index Terms | Attitude Measures, Conservatism, Ingroup-Outgroup, Liberalism, Minority Groups, Racial and Ethnic Attitudes, Rating Scales, Social Perception, Test Construction. |
Reference
Taylor, I. A. (1960). Similarities in the structure of extreme social attitudes. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 74(2), 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0093754
On this blank are listed the names of a number of different groups and descrip9ons of six different social rela9onships. For each group please check all the social rela9onships to which you would be willing to admit members of that group. If you would prefer not to admit members of a par9cular group to any of these six rela9onships, put a check mark opposite the name of that group in Column 7 (Would exclude from my country).
Social Distance Scale
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| To close | To my club as | To my street | To employment | To | As visitors | Would |
| kinship by | personal | as neighbors | in my | ci9zenship | to my | exclude |
| marriage | chums | occupa9on in | in my | country | from my | |
| my country | country | country |
| Fascists | |||||||
| Hindus | |||||||
| Puerto Ricans | |||||||
| Reac9onaries | |||||||
| Mexicans | |||||||
| Nazis | |||||||
| Turks | |||||||
| Negroes | |||||||
| Ku Klux Klan | |||||||
| Totalitarians |
Cite this article
Mohammed looti (2026). Social Distance Scale. PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. Retrieved from https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/social-distance-scale/
Mohammed looti. "Social Distance Scale." PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, 3 Apr. 2026, https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/social-distance-scale/.
Mohammed looti. "Social Distance Scale." PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, 2026. https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/social-distance-scale/.
Mohammed looti (2026) 'Social Distance Scale', PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. Available at: https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/social-distance-scale/.
[1] Mohammed looti, "Social Distance Scale," PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, vol. X, no. Y, ص Z-Z, April, 2026.
Mohammed looti. Social Distance Scale. PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. 2026;vol(issue):pages.