In-group and Out-group: Dynamics of the «Russia – West» Social Distance Online and Offline

The article reveals a theoretical and empirical study of the social distance symbolic scale expressing “in-group” – “out-group” perceptions, expressed in the oppositions “Russia” – “West”, “Russian men – Western men”. According to our observations, the opposition has a negative connotation, which is expressed in a system of geopolitical and mental biases. Through systematic analysis of the geopolitical and mental distancing phenomenon, a complementary system for evaluating individual and collective representations of Russian-speaking respondents in real and virtual spaces is proposed. The authors conducted a controlled Internet survey of 600 people based on a quota sample by gender, age, and level of education; the structure of the sample allowed for a comparative study in the form of a nonreactive study within10 largest ethnic Russian communities of the social network “VKontakte”. As a result of a comprehensive study, it is established, in particular, that the opposition “Russia – West” is unchanged in the historical perspective from 1995 to 2020 and shows negative dynamics, over time acquiring the traits of an increasingly tough confrontation. Economic perceptions of the West’s attitude towards Russia are replaced mainly by the geopolitical perception of relations, due to the dominant “power” attitudes of the survey participants. As it turned out on an empirical level, the system of traditional values inherent in Russian society is opposed to Western postmodern values, and the image of the state at the level of value representations directly correlates with the image of the people, whose perception, along with geopolitics, is influenced by various cultural norms that distinguish Russians from Europeans. The gender and age characteristics of the survey participants determine the content of the answers to a minimal extent, which indirectly indicates the integrity of the image of the West at the level of the national identity of Russians.