The Psychology of Diversity

Beyond Prejudice and Racism

James M. Jones, John F. Dovidio, Deborah L. Vietze

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781118588147
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Social Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The Psychology of Diversity presents a captivating social-psychological study of diversity, the obstacles confronting it, and the benefits it provides.

• Goes beyond prejudice and discrimination to discuss the personal and social implications of diversity for both majority and minority group members
• Considers how historical, political, economic, and societal factors shape the way people think about and respond to diversity
• Explains why discrimination leads to bias at all levels in society – interpersonal, institutional, cultural, and social
• Describes proven techniques for improving intergroup relations
• Examines the brain's impact on bias in clear terms for students with little or no background in neuroscience
• Includes helpful study tools throughout the text as well as an online instructor's manual

Part One

Framing Diversity

Chapter 1

Psychology of Diversity

Challenges and Benefits

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Introduction

The Goals of this Book

Perspectives on Diversity

The Diversity Divide: Benefits versus Challenges

Organization of this Book

Summary

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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Thomas Jefferson

Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

Major American businesses have made clear that the skills needed in today's increasingly global marketplace can only be developed through exposure to widely diverse people, cultures, ideas, and viewpoints. High-ranking retired officers and civilian military leaders assert that a highly qualified, racially diverse officer corps is essential to national security. Moreover, because universities, and in particular, law schools, represent the training ground for a large number of the Nation's leaders, … the path to leadership must be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity. Thus, the Law School has a compelling interest in attaining a diverse student body.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)

Introduction

This book is about diversity. Diversity refers to those things that make us different from one another. Race, ethnicity, and gender are the most common differences that are mentioned in diversity conversations. But diversity is much more than demographic differences. We are different by virtue of our country of origin, our culture, sexual orientation, age, values, political affiliation, socioeconomic status, and able-bodiedness. Our psychological tendencies, abilities, or preferences also mark diversity.

There are more than 7 billion people on the planet and each person is uniquely different from every other. Diversity is a global reality. Diversity becomes significant in Germany and the Netherlands when increasing numbers of immigrants arrive from Turkey, Africa, and South America. African, West Indian, and South and East Asian immigrants diversify the United Kingdom and Canada. Sub-Saharan Africans immigrate to South Africa and challenge locals for jobs and opportunities. Ethnic differences in the Pacific Islands, Eastern Europe, Canada, and many countries of Africa highlight both differences and similarities. To this we add the pressures created by trying to meld the diverse countries of Europe into a common union, the European Union (EU). Differences in politics, economic policy, cultural traditions, and religious beliefs challenge the fabric of a common identity. All of these diversity trends reflect global dynamics of difference. A recent Google search of the term yielded 229,000,000 hits, evidence of its relevance to our everyday experiences. So how can we possibly address diversity of this magnitude?

Our approach is to narrow it down. Although our goal is to help people understand diversity and people's responses in the broadest global context, much of this book is a case study of diversity issues in the United States. In this book, diversity is examined primarily with respect to racial and ethnic differences, although we also cover differences in gender, religion, ability, and sexual orientation. Diversity, and how people respond to it, depends on the history, economics, and politics of a society and the psychology of its members. For this reason, we focus primarily on diversity in the United States. However, we also refer to diversity in other nations and cultures and how responses to diversity may be similar or different.

As the book's subtitle implies, prejudice and racism play an important role in the context of diversity; they are a challenge to achieving its positive potential effects. One of the challenges of diversity in everyday life is to understand and reduce the biases that hinder the creation of diversity in groups, institutions, organizations, and societies. But equally challenging is to find the proper balance of approaches to diversity that simultaneously strengthen the fabric of our institutions and society and enrich our individual lives, while preserving the cherished values of equality of opportunity and social justice for all.

Diversity is based in difference, but a variety of similarities intersect these differences. Tsui and colleagues, for example, propose that both demographic differences and similarities between co-workers and supervisors affect task performance and behavior in organizational settings, but in somewhat different ways (Tsui, Porter, & Egan, 2002). They call this idea relational demography. Objective similarities—actual similarity in a given context—are important, but subjective similarities, the extent to which people perceive how similar they are to others, and how people weigh them against differences often matter even more. In general, perceiving greater similarity among workers in an organization is related to better performance and commitment to the organization. But perceiving greater similarity does not mean that people do not recognize or respect differences, as well.

What differences and similarities mean in a given relationship will depend on the norms and expectations in that context. A Black and a White female nurse may work together better and show greater support for the organization because of their normative similarities—both are women in a field in which women are the norm—than might a White male and a White female nurse, who are demographically similar by race but normatively dissimilar in the nursing context. In this case, gender similarity is more important than racial similarity. The simple fact of difference then does not create problems. Differences relative to what, when, and where play an important role in determining what the effects are. Diversity offers many ways for us to see similarities with others; it's not just about differences.

The two quotes at the beginning of this chapter, one from the Declaration of Independence and the other from Justice O'Connor, illustrate a major challenge we face as a democracy. These statements, made at widely varying times, demonstrate that the United States has a fundamental commitment to equal opportunity and equal rights, and a compelling interest in diversity. As enunciated by Justice O'Connor, compelling interest provides the legal basis for determining when and how taking race into account may be used to further diversity objectives in higher education. This commitment to diversity raises three fundamental questions that are the subject of this book: How can we create equality in a society that is so diverse? What are the impediments or barriers to realizing this goal? What are the benefits when we achieve it?

The biggest barriers to equality, given the diversity of our society, have historically been prejudice and racism, because they are premised on the belief that people are not equal. Prejudice and racism shape how we think about diversity and difference. When the institutions of society, such as law and education, reinforce these beliefs, the result is a self-perpetuating social hierarchy in which some groups have more, privileges and wealth for example, and other groups have less. One national ideal is to treat everyone equally, and yet everyone is not equal, because we are a diverse society. There are real and imagined differences among us. The challenge is to treat people fairly, recognizing that we are not all equally qualified for the same job, and respect the differences among us. Diversity has come to be valued in global and local businesses, in educational institutions, and in the military. Justice O'Connor's statement recognizes this and argues that we have a compelling interest to engage every citizen in the social, educational, and economic institutions that provide direct paths to leadership. Do you agree? America has always been diverse, but over time we have become diverse in different ways. Despite our increasing diversity and the recognition by many that dealing effectively with diversity is essential to our security and economic well-being, engaging diversity remains controversial and raises challenging problems.

Sturm and colleagues refer to successfully achieving diversity in colleges and universities as full participation: “an affirmative value focused on creating institutions that enable people, whatever their identity, background, or institutional position, to thrive, realize their capabilities, engage meaningfully in institutional life, and contribute to the flourishing of others” (Sturm, Eatman, Saltmarsh, & Bush, 2011, p. 3). Diversity is not a static, or a fixed number. We think of diversity as a catalyst for full participation in our communities, institutions, society and in our lives.

This book's main purpose is to help readers understand the psychology of diversity by reviewing what we know about human behavior and how it shapes our experiences with diversity in a variety of settings and contexts. This book highlights some psy­chological reactions to diversity and the emotions, perceptions, and behaviors they activate. It also presents evidence that guides us toward promising pathways for reducing some of the adverse impacts that may accompany increased diversity, as well as demonstrates some of the important benefits that diversity can produce.

The Goals of this Book

We have three main goals for this book. First we want to demonstrate the depth and breadth of diversity in the United States. Our perspective is that diversity has always been a feature of American society (see Chapter 3). This diversity has dramatically increased along race and ethnic dimensions since the 1960s. If the expanding diversity is properly understood and well managed, it will strengthen our security, economic prosperity, and innovation.

A second goal of this book is to describe how diversity is reflected in people, groups, institutions, and cultures, and how and why we react to these forms of diversity in the ways that we do. Prejudice and discrimination result not only from the actions of bigots, but also from the unexamined actions and attitudes of those of us who consider ourselves “unprejudiced.” We show that prejudice is “normal” in that it is rooted in basic human cognitive, neurological, and emotional processes. As a consequence, we must overcome powerful and ordinary predispositions in order to reduce prejudices. We present research-based strategies for overcoming some of these prejudices and thus create a more favorable environment for diversity to flourish. In this way, we hope to empower students to actualize their goals regarding equity and democracy.

Third, and finally, our goal is to present some of the problems, challenges, and differing perspectives on diversity, and we provide some historical and cultural perspectives about diversity in the United States. This book may lead you to ask more questions than we have raised here and perhaps it will help you understand and become aware of diversity's challenges. It may also encourage thinking about solutions to some of the challenges we raise. We hope this will help you better live in increasingly diverse settings, institutions, and societies. We want your understanding of diversity to be based on research findings that explain how diversity affects human behavior, and we also want you to appreciate the challenges that these findings present.

What is Diversity About?

Fundamentally, diversity is about differences between and within individuals, institutions, and societies. However, talking about diversity simply as difference is not what we mean in this book; we consider the kinds of social difference...