A
new study
undercuts the idea that positioning a company as racially diverse will encourage other
racial minorities
to apply for
jobs
within it. The study also undermines claims of a problem involving racist white men who do not want to work with racial minorities.
Participants in the study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, were shown mocked-up posters of a fictional
company
, with varying degrees of racial and gender diversity. The authors theorized, based on other research, that “organizations could communicate to applicants from minority groups that they would be entering an inclusive environment through front-facing materials, such as company websites, that highlight existing organizational diversity.”
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It did not work out that way.
“There was little evidence that racial/ethnic or gender diversity impacted the demographic composition or quality of the applicant pool,” the authors reported. Furthermore, “more applications were submitted to organizations with only white men employees or employees diverse in race/ethnicity and gender.”
The study also undercut claims of
male privilege
in the workplace, as another portion of the study found female applicants were considered “more qualified” than applicants of the other sex. “Presenting a more diverse workforce does not guarantee more minority applicants, and organizations seeking to recruit minority applicants may need stronger displays of commitments to diversity,” the authors wrote.
A “more diverse workforce” actually attracted white men, who “were more likely to apply to organizations with more than less diversity,” the study’s authors said. They noted that recent research has undermined the claims white men would not want to work at a racially diverse place, even as a “majority of the prior literature would anticipate that white men would react negatively to suggestions of a commitment to diversity.”
But the authors remain open to the idea (despite their own findings) that racism can be behind the application choices. Some racial minorities, they posit, could be resigned to a lack of jobs for nonwhite males in the tech industry. “One potential explanation is that the no diversity condition could have been viewed as merely reflecting the status quo of privileging white men in the tech industry,” the study read.
The authors also said that “the all-white, all-male and fully diverse organizations may have been viewed as more authentic or realistic, while the organizations presenting only one form of authenticity may have deviated from participants’ expectations and resulted in lower appeal.” However, they wrote that this possibility needs further study.
The findings are just one experiment using a hypothetical company, but they represent another piece of evidence against the supposed benefits of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” The State Department, for example, has pushed wokeness while its own DEI leader struggled to provide many concrete examples of success. Foggy Bottom’s diversity chief Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley cited changing the fonts used on documents and paying interns as two achievements, as
previously noted
by the Washington Examiner.
The DEI movement is facing an uphill battle as legislators correctly seek to restrict
its use
in public education and companies
ditch
its use. Meanwhile, one leader of the “anti-racism” movement, Ibram X. Kendi,
is facing fire
from his fellow leftist scholars over his lack of research and the management of his center. He should read this study from his fellow Boston University academic Aaron Nichols.
This study is the latest evidence against the benefits of corporate wokeness and DEI in general. Companies and universities should consider it as they reorient, if not cut, wokeness trainings and other programming.
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Matt Lamb is a contributor to the Washington Examiner. He is an associate editor for The College Fix and has previously worked for Students for Life of America and Turning Point USA.
