SetPadding receive the values in pixels.
So you need to start from dips and convert to pixels:
int paddingInPx = Util.dipsToPixels(6);
thumbnailImageView.setPadding(paddingInPx , paddingInPx , paddingInPx , paddingInPx );
public int dipsToPixels(int dips)
{
return (dips * getApplicationContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics().density + 0.5f);
}