Religious Social Distance: An

Exploratory Study of
Georgian Students

Ana Makashvili
Natia Kochlashvili

Ilia State University

2012-2013
 What is Social Distance?
• Emory Bogardus: “the degree of sympathetic
understanding that exists between two
persons or between a person and a group”.

• Robert Park: concept of social distance, is

“to reduce to something like measurable
terms the grades and degrees of
understanding and intimacy which
characterize personal and social relations
generally.”
“Measurable terms” were elaborated
by Emory Bogardus in 1924

Instrument:

The Social Distance Scale

 consists of 7 items designating various

social distances.
 Items start from the shortest social distance,
followed by other social distances gradually
increasing in length
 Just to give an example:
(Respondent is asked to place a check-mark against all
statements with which they agree):
e.g. I would make Georgians…
1. As close relatives by marriage (1.00)
2. As my close personal friends (2.00)
3. As neighbors on the same street (3.00)
4. As co-workers in the same occupation (4.00)
5. As citizens in my country (5.00)
6. As only visitors in my country (6.00)
7. Would exclude from my country (7.00)
 Why Study Religious Social Distance in
Georgia?
Historical Overview
• There is a popular and widely
accepted approach in Georgia that
the Orthodox Church has been
protecting Georgia as a nation since
the days of yore, and the great
merits have been attributed to the
Church for the fact that Georgian
Nation still exists.
• Historical sources and literary texts
suggest that such approach has a
solid ground: beginning from the 5th
century, Orthodox religion has been
an important, if not the determining
part of national identity of
Georgians.
 Why Study Religious Social Distance in
Georgia?
Historical Overview
• Given that Georgia is
located in the
Islamic region, it had
been under constant
attacks of former
Turkey, Iran, Arab
countries. Thus,
Orthodox religion
played the role of
unifier and was
something that
should be kept at all
costs.
 Why Study Religious Social Distance in
Georgia?
Historical Overview
• Moreover, – and for the reasons
listed above, – religious
commitment of Georgians turned
out to determine the political faith
of the country as in the late 18th
century it made its choice to get
under the patronage of Russian
Empire, a representative of
Orthodox Church itself. The latter,
for its part, was profiting from
such situation as, ideologically, it
became easier for Russia to
assimilate Georgia into its
Empire.
 Why Study Religious Social Distance in
Georgia?
Historical Overview

• Soviet regime (Georgia being one of the USSR’s countries)

was accompanied by the elimination of religion.
• Religious sentiments of Georgians started flourishing after
the fall of the Soviet Union.
• And since the independence of Georgia up to now the
impact of the Georgian Orthodox Church has been
increasing constantly.
 Why Study Religious Social Distance in Georgia?
Historical Overview
• Orthodox Church has filled in the socio-
political vacuum created as a result of the
fall of the former ideology, and quickly
occupied an influential niche.
• That was exactly in 1990’s of the 20th
century that saw the strengthening of
Orthodox institutes, building of lots of new,
architecturally quite unflattering churches
and introducing the religious education in
public schools.
• Thus, it might not be surprising that “the
vast majority of religiously active
population are young people, living in the
capital city, with higher education, who
spent their childhood in 1990’s – in the
most harsh (insecure) political and
economic situation” (Kekelia T.,
Gavashelishvili E., Ladaria K.,
Sulkhanishvili I.: The Role of Orthodox
Church in Formation of Georgiana National
Identity, 2013).
Why Study Religious Social Distance in
Georgia?
Situation Today
(Stats and Facts)
Religious Minorities in Georgia:
Religions %
Orthodox Christians 83.9%

Muslims 9.9%
Apostolic Armenians 3.9%
Catholics 0.8%
Judaists 0.1%
Other 0.8%
Non-believers 0.6%
Why Study Religious Social Distance in
Georgia?
Situation Today
(Stats and Facts)
How Important is religion in your daily life? (%) CB, 2010
Factor of Religion
 Why Study Religious Social Distance in
Georgia?
Situation Today
(Stats and Facts)
The influential role of religion in Georgians’ everyday
lives is supported by the study carried out in 2011 on the
sample consisting of 1058 respondents (Sumbadze N.:
Generations and Values, 2012):

 The majority of respondents (56.3%) thinks there is

only one veritable religion and that is the Orthodox
Church.
The majority of respondents (56.3%) believes in the
existence of the only one true religion, i.e., the Orthodox
Christianity.
 Only 23.7% of population think that other religions in
Georgia should enjoy the same rights as Orthodox
church.
 The majority of respondents (65.9%) identify
themselves more with a “Veritable Christian” rather
than with a “citizen of Georgia” (34.1%).
 Most respondents (80.7%) find relief and strength in
religion.
 Most respondents support the unity of religious and
secular spheres.
 53.1% percent do not agree that religious leaders
should not try to influence government decisions.
 About half (49.4%) considers that politicians who do
not believe in God are unfit for public office.
Influential Georgian Politicians
Keeping Pace with the Current
Social Situation
 Stats and Facts
(continued)

Church is the most trusted institution: It

enjoys the trust of 94% of respondents
(IRI, November 2012).
 Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia has
93% popularity rating among Georgian
population (NDI, December 2012).
 The activities of the latter are not
regarded bad or very bad by a single
person (NDI, December 2012).
 Why Study Religious Social Distance in Georgia
Situation Today
(Stats and Facts)
 Given the circumstances, prejudiced rhetoric and even
discrimination toward religious minorities have been
activated during the past years.
 For example, the Orthodox population of one of the rural
regions of Georgia had recently been impeding local
Muslim residents from their religious service (Tabula,
29.10.2012).
 Therefore, not surprisingly, Media studies show hate
speech usage to ethnic minorities, especially in 3
nationwide newspapers (media monitoring results, 2011;
2012; Chachanidze, 2011).
 European Commission has appealed to Georgia twice
against racism and intolerance with recommendation of
criminalizing hate speech.
Social Distance – a
Component of Prejudice
• Social distance is regarded as one of the
components of prejudice.
• Research community in social sciences shares the
statement that people hold prejudices toward
representatives of other groups, be these ethnic,
religious, sexual, racial and others.
• Reasons of prejudice may vary, beginning from the
socio-economic conditions (the lower the
employment rate in a country, the higher economic
competition and thus, levels of prejudice) to
personal traits (such as authoritarianism, emotional
insecurity).
 Religiosity as one of the
Reasons of Prejudiced Attitudes
As Scheepers, Gijsberts and Hello found out in
their study on European countries (Religiosity
and Prejudice against Ethnic Minorities in
Europe: Cross-National Tests on a
Controversial Relationship, 2002),

“Catholics and Protestants support prejudice

against ethnic minorities more than non-
religious people. It turns out that the more
frequently people attend church, the more they
are prejudiced”.
 Religiosity as one of the Reasons of
Prejudiced Attitudes
• Thus, along with the problems relating to
Georgia’s sovereignty (1/3 of Georgian
territories is occupied by Russia) that
threaten its identity (unresolved territorial
conflicts as a constant threat to national
security) and socio-economic stability
(unemployment rate around 16%,),
religiosity of population adds up to the
prejudiced attitudes.
• In addition, religiosity, as logic and
studies (Kekelia, Ladaria et al., 2013)
suggest is a side effect of such unstable
environment characteristic to the country
in the process of formation as a state
nation and democracy.
 Research Question

o What are the distances of

Georgian students to various
religions?
o And how can these distances
be explained?
 Study Design
Stage I (quantitative) Stage II
• Instrument: (qualitative)
Bogardus’ Social Distance Scale.
• Method:
* Low score indicates low social
distance, high score indicates high Two sessions
social distance. of mini-focus
• Sample:
groups with BA
N = 91
students
Male – 45.7%
 Female – 55.3%
studying social
 Orthodox Christian – 85.7% sciences in Ilia
 Others – 14.3% State
 Religious – 83% University.
 Non-religious – 9%
 Religious Groups to
Assess

• Buddhists
• Catholics
• Muslims
• Protestants
 Results
Religious Groups Mean Scores Std. Deviation

Catholics 2.74 1.523

Protestants 3.80 1.881

Buddhists 3.94 1.902

Muslims 4.18 2.007

 Perceived Cultural Similarity
(Quotes)

• Georgian students show less social distance to

representatives of Catholic Church – the largest
denomination of Christianity.

“Culture is overly linked with religiosity.”

“It’s not only about religions, but about culture and

social environment, and that is important for me”.
 Perceived Cultural Similarity
(Quote)
“It’s logical to have close distance to
Catholics. Catholics live with more religious
lifestyles. They attend the church. They are
the closest to Orthodox Christians. We want
to be the part of the Western Culture and
Catholicism is associated with that.”
 However,

• Students do not perceive Protestantism as

one of the denominations of Christianity,
but more as an ideology, “rebel”,
“radicalism”, “revolt”, and even a form of
“capitalism”.

“Protestantism is more liberal and free, but

Catholicism is an influential branch of
Christianity.”
 Lack of Information
(Quotes)

• The lower social distance to Protestantism

is also attributed to the lack of information
on the denomination.
“This is the religion we don’t have
information about.”
“They [respondents filling in the Bogardus
Scale questionnaire] know that Protestants
are Christians, but they don’t know as much
about it as about Catholics.”
 Lack of Information & Cultural
Distance
• Lack of information is even more evident (Quotes)
in case of Buddhists as well as the
cultural difference.
“I have neutral attitude to Buddhism. It
does not interest me. I don’t even have
any information. I have got books at
home, but I did not even skimmed
through them.”
“Lack of knowledge is the reason why they
just keep Buddhists at such distance.”
“Buddhism is radically different from us,
it’s a far-away religion which is why we
are more distanced toward them.”
 Historical Events
(Quotes)
• Local and worldly events play the most important role in social
distances to Muslims. Moreover, only one participant of focus-groups
stated that they would marry Muslim, only “if they won’t make me feel
constrained by their religiosity, and if their religious belief would let
them marry non-Muslim.

“From the age of 10-11 we’ve been taught in schools that Muslims invade
our country and destroy it. This pretty much influences our opinions.”
“Throughout history they attacked us, occupied our territories, oppressed
us. Too much negative is associated with them. And when you have so
much threat to your religion, you get the negative feedback, and
therefore, people had more urge to protect Orthodox Church…”
“And that is why we preferred Orthodox Russians: they saved our
religion, although the final results were really bad; we lost our
culture…”
Historical Events (Quotes)
“I associate Muslims with Bin Laden
phenomenon, terrorist acts…”
“They made many cruelties to the world…
Well, I mean from the perspective of my
own values… They perceive events in terms of religious
context and not globally…”

* It should be noted here that in the study of Parrillo and

Donoghue conducted in the U.S. with the sample of 2,916
college students, using Bogardus Scale, Muslims and Arabs
were held at the longest social distance, with mean scores
1.88 and 1.94, respectively. Interestingly, these scores are
even smaller than the scores of Georgian students toward
Catholics, the most preferred religious group. In addition,
Parrilo and Donoghue conducted this study was conducted
in 2001, too soon after 9/11.
Gender and Distance toward Muslims

• We found high
significant correlation
between gender and
social distance to Muslims
and Protestants.
• However, the
relationship is even
stronger between gender
and distance to Muslims.
Interestingly, Female
students are more
distanced towards
Muslims than males.
 Gender and Distance toward
Muslims
(Quotes)
• Indeed, the participants of focus groups emphasize
the situation of women in Muslim culture. Whether their
ideas are based upon stereotypes or on real facts, their
attitudes are strongly determined by this circumstance
“Women are oppressed there.”
“Their traditions allow them to discriminate against
women. I’ve seen a movie based on real life stories
where they hit women with stones.”
“They discriminate against women, and I can’t tolerate
that. Women have to wear headscarves and that is
quite unfamiliar for me…”
 Religiosity Matters
• The opinions differed between students who stated that
they were religious and those who said they were not
religious, especially in terms of religious minority rights.

Religious Students:
“The rhetoric about equality and religious rights is very
much hyped these days. Why nobody cares about the rights
of our religions in, let’s say, Muslim countries?”
“There should be special areas in towns for religious
minorities to build their own churches”.
“There should be some regulations and limits for building
their churches.”
“We, the Christians, are more numerous than religious
minorities. So, two or three churches for each denomination
should be enough.”
 Religiosity Matters
Non-religious students:

“Rights of minorities are violated.

Government gives explicit preference
to the Orthodox Church.”
“Legally, their rights are not violated or
at least, should not be so, but given the
attitudes of society, their rights are
harshly violated.”
The Role of Mass-media
(Quotes)
• As in almost any areas, mass-media has its
influence on religious issues.
“They never say anything remotely bad or critical on
the Orthodox Church.”
“There was a case when Orthodox believers and even
Church officials physically abused an author of the
book with slightly controversial title, and also his
friends and supporters, and it was broadcasted live.
But those abusers were never punished; no legal
actions were used against them. And when people
see on TV that they were not punished only because
they were Orthodox Christians, that’s too bad.”
“Media helps maintaining an inviolable image of the
Church.”
 Orthodox Church as an
Important Part of
National Identity (Quotes)
• All participants of focus groups share to some
extent an opinion that Orthodox Church is a part
of national identity in Georgia.

“Our religion unified Georgia. We did not get

mixed up with other nations. It is a part of
identity.”

“Historically, our culture was born in Georgian

churches and in churches it did survive.”
 Orthodox Church as an
Important Part of National
Identity (Quote)
“Historically, Orthodox
Church is intertwined with
the sense of nationality. And
media always reminds us of
that, it puts equation
between Orthodox Church
and “being Georgian.”
Georgia and the Church
worked in couple to bring
the country where we are
now.”
 Conclusion
It seems that in assessing
representatives of different religions,
many factors work combined, such as
perceived cultural similarity, past and
present state of Georgia, media-
influences, general stereotypes, and
personal traits, like one’s own
religiosity.
Thank You for Your Attention