Critics of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, commonly referred to by the acronym DEI, are increasingly using Boycotts And Prohibitions To Fight against their useIt is usually argued that this anti-DEI backlash is motivated by race-neutral concerns – for instance, that DEI practices are irrelevant to job performance or too political.
But our current researchpublished within the peer-reviewed Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, suggests that conservative criticism of DEI often boils all the way down to one thing: anti-black racism.
As psychology ResearchersWe wanted to know why people reply to DEI the best way they do. That's why we recruited greater than 1,000 people to take part in three studies.
For each study, we measured participants’ conservatism on a seven-point scale starting from extremely liberal to extremely conservative. Single-point measures like this are is usually utilized by researchers.
We also measured participants’ racism against blacks by Symbolic Racism Scalea well-validated and commonly used measure of anti-Black racism. Research suggests that as overt racism has develop into less acceptable, people are likely to direct their racism toward symbols of racial equality, comparable to DEI. This meant that the Symbolic Racism scale was an excellent measure of anti-Black racism for our purposes.
How we worked
In the primary study, we asked participants to read a job posting from either an organization that values DEI or an organization that values teamwork and good skilled relationships. Participants then rated their interest within the job and the way fair they thought the corporate was. In later studies, in addition they indicated how well they thought they might fit into the corporate.
We found that participants who scored higher on our conservatism measure were significantly less serious about pursuing employment at the corporate that promoted DEI and viewed it as less fair than the corporate that promoted teamwork.
We then included symbolic racism in our statistical model. After that, our measure of conservatism was not capable of predict workplace interest or perceived fairness within the pro-DEI organization.
In other words, symbolic racism accounted for the effect of conservatism on outcomes within the DEI condition. This suggests that conservative participants' responses to DEI aren’t independent of symbolic racism.
We expanded on these findings in our subsequent studies. In the second study, participants were randomly assigned to read descriptions of comparable firms that support DEI or teamwork. In addition, half of the participants were told why the organization supports either DEI or teamwork, while the opposite half weren’t.
We found that participants who scored higher on conservatism were less serious about applying to the pro-DEI company and perceived it as less fair, no matter whether DEI—or teamwork—was clearly tied to job-related criteria.
We estimated statistical models just like those in the primary study. And we again found that negative views of the DEI company disappeared once we included symbolic racism in our statistical model. Thus, negative reactions to the pro-DEI organization looked as if it would reflect racism-related moderately than work-related concerns.
In the third study, participants read job advertisements for an organization that promotes DEI, teamwork, or family values. The company that promotes family values was described as an organization that wishes to preserve traditional values.
We found that participants who were more committed to conservatism were more serious about applying to that company because they felt it was fairer and fit higher within the scenario where family-friendly values were represented. The opposite was true for the corporate that was more committed to DEI.
When we included symbolic racism in our models, we found that positive views of the family-friendly company remained significant, but negative views of the DEI-advocating company disappeared. This suggests that resistance to DEI is rooted in anti-Black racism moderately than political concerns.
Why it will be important
Given the Tense political environmentOrganizations must grapple with criticism of DEI programs. To successfully reply to that criticism, you should grapple with the underlying motive—which our research shows is usually anti-Black racism.
What happens next?
As a part of the recruitment process Pursue And Organizations Ask applicants about their views on DEI or what they’ve done to put it on the market. In our study, we included requests for similar statements.
However, nobody has yet tested whether people's responses to those statements actually predict performance related to DEI. That's what our team wants to research next—whether an individual's expressed views on DEI can predict work outcomes like effective collaboration on diverse teams.
The Research Brief is a summary of interesting scientific papers.
image credit : theconversation.com