On Application of the Social Distance Scale in Studies on National Tolerance in Ukraine

Abstract

The article presents the main results of the survey (1992–2003) on interethnic orientations of Ukrainian population measured according to the social distance scale by Bogardus adapted in Ukraine by the article’s author in 1990. The obtained data made it possible to reveal a number of phenomena (“over-caution”, “Eastern Slavic isolation”, “redoubled border control”, “high jump”, “unanimous isolation”), and paradoxes of the mass interethnic self-consciousness of population (paradox of the “national identification”, the “good attitude” paradox). New results confirmed the growing orientations (in the mass consciousness) to the larger ethnic distance, which promotes development of national and governmental isolation. The author paid much attention to a story about the methods (the social distance scale) development and their approbation in Ukraine.