The Psychology of Diversity

Are you suffering from diversity fatigue? If so, you’re not alone. For more than a century, Americans have been trying to come to terms with their inherent diversity, defined here as people from a range of different backgrounds based on race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, ability, and other criteria. Ever since the concept of the United States being a “melting pot” was discarded, as I discuss in my new book, Diversity in the United States, “cultural pluralism,” “multiculturalism,” and, most recently, “diversity” have been central themes in the national conversation.

Why are Americans seemingly obsessed with diversity? The short answer is that we are a constructed nation, with all of us save for Native Americans able to trace our ancestry to somewhere else. Over the years, differences based on race, ethnicity, and religion were expanded to include many other forms of personal and group identity, leading to our seemingly Balkanized society. The irony is that research into the human genome has shown diversity to be a socially determined concept rather than a biological one; we all share essentially the same DNA, making the inequalities and intolerance shown to certain groups based on how they appear or act all the more absurd and, at times, tragic.

Beyond operating on a cultural level, however, diversity functions on a psychological level, more reason why it plays such an important role in the lives of Americans. That is the subject of The Psychology of Diversity: Beyond Prejudice and Racism, a 2013 book co-authored by James M. Jones, John F. Dovidio, and Deborah L. Vietze. “Prejudice is ‘normal’ in that it is rooted in basic human cognitive, neurological, and emotional processes,” they wrote, with what we consider to be diversity grounded in patterns of thinking, analysis, perception, and point of view.

4 Ways Cognitive Diversity Plays Out in Our Brains

Specifically, according to the three professors of psychology, cognitive diversity plays out in our brains in four different ways: (1) perspective (ways of representing and understanding the world), (2) heuristics (thinking tools or strategies for solving problems or achieving goals), (3) interpretation (creating categories of things and experiences into which we assign meaning), and (4) prediction (inferences we make). What does all that mean? “Different areas of the brain are activated spontaneously when we encounter a person from a different group and that can automatically arouse bias,” they noted, with anthropologists determining that Americans are especially attuned to racial and ethnic categorization.

Another piece of the diversity equation is social cognition—i.e., how we think about people in social contexts. “The mental shortcuts that people use to navigate a complex and diverse world can often lead to bias against people who are unfamiliar to us or different in the way they look, speak, or act,” Jones, Dovidio, and Vietze continued, this otherwise rational process capable of prompting the devaluation of other groups. (Social and economic dominance—power—is usually the subtext.) Diversity is, thus, relational, they explained, with inter-group relations operating on a macro level alongside micro (individual) biases.

Learning How to Be Unprejudiced

The fact that diversity is embedded in both neurological/emotional and social cognition makes it perhaps not surprising that prejudices and bias have heavily defined the American experience and are still very much present today. Given those deep roots, is it even possible to become a truly tolerant and equitable society? Happily, yes, Jones, Dovidio, and Vietze are quick to inform us in their important book that Americans, like all people, are capable of learning how to be unprejudiced.

By knowing where prejudice comes from, the authors convincingly argue, it can be reduced, although they freely admit that eradicating stereotypes and breaking down the barriers between “us” and “them” are not easy things to do. De-categorization through interaction, creating authentic cultures of respect, establishing trust in intergroup relations, and simply subscribing to the belief that biases can be lessened are just a few of the actions that can and should be taken to overcome “normal” prejudices.

More reason to pursue such a worthy goal is that it has been well-documented that diversity can be a positive force in settings in which different types of knowledge and perspective are welcomed. Diversity is a resource, Jones, Dovidio, and Vietze conclude—wise words that can guide us to a better and more inclusive society and world.