[1][2] Modern research into social distance is primarily attributed to work by sociologist Georg Simmel.
[6][3][4] Robert Park tasked his student, Emory Bogardus, to create a quantifiable measure of social distance.
[3][5][4] Contemporary studies of social distance do exhibit some features of a cohesive body of literature, but the definitions and frameworks sometimes show significant variations across researchers and disciplines.
[5][6] In questionnaires based on Bogardus' scale, respondents are typically asked members of which groups they would accept in particular relationships.
The social distance questionnaires may not accurately measure what people actually would do if a member of another group sought to become a friend or neighbour.
The social distance scale is only an attempt to measure one's feeling of unwillingness to associate equally with a group.
[16] Social distance can emerge between groups that differ on a variety of dimensions, including culture, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic class.
[18] The relationship between social distance and prejudice is documented in studies of attitudes towards individuals who suffer from a mental illness.
[19] Distance from the mentally ill and the desire to maintain it depends on the diagnosis, and varies across age groups and nationalities.
In this line of work, researchers increase social distance by anonymizing economic decisions.
[28][29][30][10] The third-person effect describes individuals' tendency to assume that media messages have a greater influence on those other than themselves.