Racism underlies seemingly race-neutral conservative criticisms of DEI statements among Black and White people in the United States

Authors

Abigail M. Folberg, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow
Laura J. Brooks Dueland, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow
Matthew Swanson, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow
Sarah Stepanek, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow
Mikki Hebl, Rice University
Carey S. Ryan, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-22-2024

Publication Title

Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology

Volume

97

Issue

3

First Page

791

Last Page

816

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12491

Abstract

We examined how potential job candidates react to a hiring organization that requests diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) statements, which conservatives in the United States and elsewhere have criticized as being unrelated to job function and inappropriately political or ideological. Across three studies (two of which were pre-registered), we compared reactions to requests for DEI (vs. teamwork or conservative values) statements as a function of race (Black vs. White), political conservatism and symbolic racism (Total N = 1108). When a DEI (vs. teamwork or politically conservative values) statement was requested, participants who were more (vs. less) conservative perceived the organization as less just, expressed less interest in the job, and expected poorer person-organization fit, even when a job-related rationale was provided. Further, participants who were more (vs. less) conservative evaluated a request for a statement consistent with conservative values more favourably. Thus, criticisms that DEI statements are overly political are not applied to other statements that might elicit similar concerns. Moreover, an internal meta-analysis suggested that the relationships of conservatism to justice and interest (but not person-organization fit) in response to requests for DEI (vs. teamwork) statements were not independent of racism. Findings were consistent with social dominance theory; racism may underlie seemingly race-neutral backlash to DEI statements.

Comments

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This article was published open access under the Wiley and University of Nebraska at Omaha open access publishing agreement.

Recommended Citation

Folberg, Abigail M.; Dueland, Laura J. Brooks; Swanson, Matthew; Stepanek, Sarah; Hebl, Mikki; and Ryan, Carey S., "Racism underlies seemingly race-neutral conservative criticisms of DEI statements among Black and White people in the United States" (2024). Psychology Faculty Publications. 354.
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/psychfacpub/354

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.