Opinion | What if diversity training is doing more harm than good? (2023)

Diversity training has been around for decades, long before the country's last racial reckoning. But after the killing of George Floyd, when companies were under pressure to demonstrate their commitment to racial justice, industry interest in diversity, equity and inclusion (D.E.I.)burst. The US market reached oneEstimated $3.4 billionin 2020.

DEI training was developed to help organizations be more welcoming to members of traditionally excluded groups. Advocates make bold promises: diversity workshops can promote better intergroup relationships, improve minority employee retention, close the recruitment gap, etc. The only problem? There is little evidence that many of these initiatives are working. And the specific type of diversity training that's all the rage right now: mandatory training that dominant groups for D.E.I. make responsible. Problems - can certainly have a net negative effect on the results managers tell them they care about.

Over the years, social scientists who have carefully reviewed the evidence base for diversity training have often come to discouraging conclusions. Although diversity training has existed in one form or another since at least the 1960s, few are rigorously evaluated and most appear to have had little or no long-term positive impact. The lack of evidence is "disappointing," wrote Princeton's Elizabeth Levy Paluck and her co-authors in a 2021Article of the Annual Magazine of Psychology,"Noting the frequency with which calls for diversity training follow widespread instances of discriminatory behavior."

The team of dr. Paluck found only two large experimental studies that attempted to assess the impact of diversity training in the past decade and they met basic quality standards. Other researchers were not impressed either. "We've been talking to employers about this research for more than a decade,"wroteSociologists Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev in 2018, "with the message that diversity training is probably the most expensive and least effective diversity program out there." (To be fair, not all of these criticisms so clearly apply to voluntary diversity training.)

If diversity training is not having an impact, it would mean that perhaps billions of dollars a year in the United States are wasted on these efforts. But there's a darker possibility: some diversity initiatives could be D.E.I. actually make it worse. climate of the organizations that pay them.

This is partly because any psychological intervention can do more harm than good. Psychologist Scott Lilienfeld made this point in ainfluential article from 2007in which he argued that certain interventions, including those aimed at addressing youth drug use, juvenile delinquency and PTSD, most likely fall into this category. In the case of D.E.I. warn dr Dobby and Dr. Kalev warns that diversity training that is mandatory or threatens the sense of belonging of dominant groups or makes them feel guilty can lead to thisnegative setbackor reinforce prejudice.

Many popular contemporaries D.E.I. Approaches meet these criteria. They often seem geared more towards creating a revolutionary new understanding of race relations than solving the specific problems of organizations. And they often blame white people or their culture for harming people of color. For example the activist Tema Okunis workingHe cites concepts such as objectivity and the cult of the written word as characteristics of the "culture of white supremacy". Robin DiAngelo's "White Frailty" workouts are designed to make white participants uncomfortable. And microaggression training is based on a body of academic literature that saysno quality teststhat common phrases like “America is a melting pot” are harmful to the mental health of people of color. Much of this training goes against the views of the majority of Americans, of all races, on race and equality. And they're generating exactly the kind of backlash that research is predicting.

Just ask the staff at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture who had toissue an apologyafter publishing an okunesque graphic labeling rational thinking, hard work, and "emphasis on scientific method" as attributes of "white culture."

Then there are the lawsuits. WhatThis was reported by the New York Times magazine.In 2020, at least half a dozen New York City Department of Education employees filed lawsuits or won settlements in cases involving D.E.I. Racial-affinity group training, a popular intervention that temporarily segregates participants by race so they can talk about race, may have proved even more problematic. They've generated complaints in places likeJacksonville, Florida, where a principal was temporarily reassigned after trying to separate white students from black students to discuss cultural issues, and Wellesley, Massachusetts, where the creation of racial affinity groups for students sparked aDemand already resolvedfrom a conservative group.

Not all complaints are valid, not all lawsuits are justified, and backlash to talks about racial justice is nothing new. Martin Luther King Jr.had a negative rating of 63 percentbefore his assassination. If joint diversity training has definitely made institutions measurably more equitable or inclusive, then one could argue that it's worth it, despite backlash and rising legal fees. But there is little evidence that they do.

So what works? Robert Livingston, a Harvard Kennedy School professor who works as a bias researcher and diversity consultant, had a simple suggestion: "Focus on actions and behaviors, not heart and mind."

dr Livingston suggested that it is more important to understand an organization's specific issues with D.E.I. to diagnose accurately. and develop concrete solution strategies rather than trying to change the attitude of individual employees. and I.E.I. The challenges vary greatly from organization to organization: Sometimes it's about the relationship between white and non-white employees, sometimes it's about recruiting or retaining employees, and sometimes it's about the unequal treatment of customers. (Think of black patients who were prescribed fewer pain medications than white patients.)

The legwork that goes into understanding and solving these problems isn't exactly glamorous. If you want more black and latino people to fill executive positions at your large company, you may need to collect data on what percentage of applicants come from these groups and survey current black and latino managers to see if there are any weather issues that are contributing could problem . and possibly increase recruitment efforts at, for example, business schools with high percentages of Black and Hispanic graduates. Even solving this problem, which is quite common, can take hundreds of hours of work.

The truth is, as Dr. Livingston emphasized that not all organizations are up to this type of task. Ticking a box and moving on is perhaps the most appealing option. "Some organizations want to do showcases," he said. "And if so, then take a white brittle workshop with you and know that you have achieved your goal."

The history of diversity training is, in a sense, a history of fads. Perhaps, over time, the current crop will wither, new ones will sprout, stunted by the same lack of evidence, and in ten years someone else will write a version of this article. But it's also possible that organizations are tired of spending time and money on training where the benefits are mostly theoretical and the potential downsides include disgruntled employees, public embarrassment, and even lawsuits. You can find that a real commitment to D.E.I. it does not lend itself to simple solutions.

Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) is the author of "The Quick Fix: Why Trendy Psychology Can't Cure Our Social Illnesses' and co-host of the podcast 'Blocked and Reported'. Write the Singal-Minded Newsletter.

The Times is committed to publicationa variety of lettersto the publisher. We'd love to know what you think of this or any of our items. Here are someRat. And here is our email:cartas@nytimes.com.

Follow the New York Times Opinion section atFacebook,Twitter (@NYTopinion)jInstagram.