The Benefits of Diversity

Can Higher Education Meet the Needs of an Increasingly Diverse and Global Society? Campus Diversity and Cross-Cultural Workforce Competencies

In this 2008 study, researcher Uma M. Jayakumar investigates the benefits of students’ exposure to racial diversity in college and their post-college, cross-cultural workforce competencies. The author uses structural equation modeling to show that for white students from both segregated and diverse precollege neighborhoods, their post-college leadership skills and level of pluralistic orientation are either directly or indirectly related to the structural diversity and racial climate of their postsecondary institutions and their level of cross-racial interaction during the college years. The author concludes that postsecondary institutions may provide lasting benefits to white students by promoting a positive racial climate for a racially diverse student body.

How Diversity Makes Us Smarter

In this 2014 Scientific American article, the late, widely regarded author and Columbia Business School Professor Katherine W. Phillips explains how diversity enhances creativity, encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leads to better decision-making and problem-solving, improves the bottom line of companies, leads to unfettered discoveries and breakthrough innovations and can change the way we think simply by being exposed to it. Phillips draws from decades of research from organizational scientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists and demographers.

Diversity Climate Enhances Work Outcomes Through Trust and Openness in Workgroup Communication

In this 2016 study, researchers Joep Hofhuis, Pernill G. A. van der Rijt and Martijn Vlug write about how “diversity climates”––defined as organizational climates characterized by openness toward and appreciation of individual differences––has been shown to enhance outcomes in culturally diverse teams. It remains unclear which processes are responsible for these findings, and this paper presents two quantitative studies that identify trust and openness in working group communication as possible mediators.

The Educational Benefits of Sustaining Cross-Racial Interaction Among Undergraduates

In this 2005 study, Mitchell J. Chang, associate professor of higher education and organization change at the University of California, Los Angeles Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and UCLA colleagues Nida Denson, Victor Sáenz, and Kimberly Misa examine whether or not students who either had higher levels of cross-racial interaction during college or had same-institution peers with higher than average levels of this type of interaction tend to report significantly larger developmental gains than their counterparts. The general pattern of findings suggests that higher individual levels of cross-racial interaction have positive effects on students' openness to diversity, cognitive development and self-confidence.

College Diversity Experiences and Cognitive Development: A Meta-Analysis

In this 2010 study, Notre Dame researcher Nicholas A. Bowman uses meta-analysis to examine the relationship between college diversity and cognitive development. The findings of this study suggest that several types of diversity experiences are positively related to several cognitive outcomes, but the magnitude of the effect varies substantially depending on the type of diversity experience, the type of cognitive outcome and the study design. Implications for future research and practice are also discussed.

Racial Diversity Matters: The Impact of Diversity-Related Student Engagement and Institutional Context

In this 2009 study, University of New South Wales researcher Nida Denson and University of California, Los Angeles researcher Mitchell J. Chang address whether different forms of campus racial diversity contribute uniquely to students’ learning and educational experiences when they are simultaneously tested using multilevel modeling and whether a campus where students take greater advantage of those diversity opportunities have independent positive effects on students’ learning. Results suggest that benefits associated with diversity may be more far-reaching than previously documented. Not only do students benefit from engaging with racial diversity through related knowledge acquisition or cross-racial interaction but also from being enrolled on a campus where other students are more engaged with those forms of diversity, irrespective of their own level of engagement.

Truths About DEI on College Campuses: Evidence-based Expert Responses to Politicized Misinformation

In this University of Southern California Race and Equity Center report, a group of academic experts from across the United States provide evidence-based responses to debunk misinformation about the origin, benefits, intent and value of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in higher education.

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