Social distancing and interethnic communication in the ethnic behavior of Dagestan youth

Introduction: The nature of interethnic communication, the intensity of interpersonal contacts, and the state of the interethnic sphere are directly influenced by the socio-cultural specifics of the ethnic community, which implies differences and similarities between national entities. Therefore, the expression of social distancing in a multinational and polyreligious society, such as Dagestan, is of scientific interest. Social distance and the specifics of its manifestation in public consciousness and behavior are key factors in the formation of interethnic tolerance, maintaining stability and a positive interethnic climate. Therefore, the establishment of acceptable and unacceptable boundaries of interethnic interaction existing in the public consciousness of the young generation of Dagestanis is due to the fact that, according to the author, it is the ethnic border that determines the vectors of (stable or unstable) development of society. Research methods: The social distance was studied using the E. Bogardus scale, which shows the attitudes existing in the public consciousness of Dagestan youth to accept representatives of a different national group in various spheres of interaction. An empirical study was conducted in 2022 in the administrative formations of the Republic of Dagestan: Makhachkala, Derbent, Khasavyurt, Botlikh, Derbent, Kazbekov, Kizlyar, Levashinsky districts. The object of the study is Dagestan youth. The subject of the study is social distancing and its expression in the public consciousness of the younger generation of Dagestanis. The research method is a mass standardized survey. N = 543. Results: The author adheres to the position that pronounced social distance, as the designation "we are them" and the statement of ethno-cultural specifics, carries a negative charge, because it can form intolerant attitudes, negative ethnic stereotypes, prejudices in society that do not allow maintaining interpersonal communication and maintaining a positive interethnic climate. The conducted research shows the dominance of positive attitudes towards interethnic interaction and its positive characteristics in the public consciousness of the young generation of Dagestanis. The basis for the conclusion about the existence of principles of tolerance in the behavior of the interviewed Dagestan youth is empirical material showing a significant percentage gap in positions, firstly, emphasizing a positive attitude to interaction, and secondly, the designation by respondents of the absence of ethnic entities with which they are uncomfortable to communicate. The criterion for measuring social distance is the willingness to interact with representatives of a foreign community in various spheres of life: the analysis of the material states the weak expression of social distance among the interviewed Dagestan youth. As a rule, with a positive perception of the foreign environment in almost all social areas, the exception was the family-marriage sphere: verification of empiricism states the absence of prejudice in the mass consciousness of the younger generation of Dagestanis and the willingness to accept a person of a different ethnicity in such a conservative sphere as family-marriage.