Culture & the Family

Study finds DEI training increases prejudice

December 4, 2024

Ray Carter

In 2021, Oklahoma lawmakers voted to outlaw mandatory trainings at state colleges that embrace certain core tenets of Critical Race Theory. In practice that meant many “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) trainings were prohibited, since DEI is often based on Critical Race Theory.

A recent study highlights why lawmakers were eager to ban those trainings. Researchers found that many DEI trainings increase prejudice—so much so that individuals who underwent DEI training became more likely to endorse viewpoints expressed by Adolf Hitler.

“The evidence presented in these studies reveals that while purporting to combat bias, some anti-oppressive DEI narratives can engender a hostile attribution bias and heighten racial suspicion, prejudicial attitudes, authoritarian policing, and support for punitive behaviors in the absence of evidence for a transgression deserving punishment,” researchers wrote.

“Instructing Animosity: How DEI Pedagogy Produces the Hostile Attribution Bias” was authored by researchers at Rutgers University’s Social Perception Lab and officials with the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI). The researchers examined the effects of “anti-oppressive DEI educational materials frequently used in interventional and educational settings,” drawing on content from the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), materials featuring excerpts from DEI scholars like Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, and anti-oppression narratives from Equality Labs, a major training provider for caste discrimination in North America.

NCRI conducted a study involving 423 undergraduates from Rutgers University, split into two groups. One group, which served as the control, was asked to read a neutral essay about U.S. corn production. The other group was exposed to an essay “which combined educational texts from prominent DEI scholars, Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo.”

The Kendi/DiAngelo essay stated, “White people raised in Western society are conditioned into a white supremacist worldview. Racism is the norm; it is not unusual. As a result, interaction with White people is at times so overwhelming, draining, and incomprehensible that it causes serious anguish for People of Color.”

The Kendi/DiAngelo essay also stated that “racism is essentially capitalist,” that officials “must deploy antiracist power to compel or drive from power the racist policymakers and institute policy that is antiracist and anti-capitalist,” that the “ideologies of objectivity, individualism, and meritocracy are social forces that function powerfully to hold the racial hierarchy in place,” and that the “only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination.”

After reading the short essays, the two groups were then presented with the following racially neutral scenario: “A student applied to an elite East Coast university in Fall 2024. During the application process, he was interviewed by an admissions officer. Ultimately, the student’s application was rejected.”

Even though the scenario presented “no evidence of racism,” researchers found that students who read the Ibram X. Kendi/Robin DiAngelo essay “perceived the admissions officer as significantly more prejudiced than did those who read the neutral corn essay,” perceived more discrimination from the admissions officer “despite the complete absence of evidence of discrimination,” believed the admissions officer was more unfair to the applicant, had caused more harm to the applicant, and had committed more microaggressions.

Students who read the Ibram X. Kendi/Robin DiAngelo essay were also more likely to support “punishing the admissions officer” by suspending the officer for a semester, demanding a public apology to the applicant, and requiring additional DEI training to correct the officer.

“Educational materials from some of the most well published and well known DEI scholars not only failed to positively enhance interracial attitudes, they provoked baseless suspicion and encouraged punitive attitudes,” researchers noted.

When researchers conducted a similar experiment using DEI materials on caste sensitivity training, the study “revealed a significant increase in agreement with demonizing statements adapted from Adolf Hitler’s quotes, where the term ‘Jew’ was replaced with ‘Brahmin,’ a group often depicted as oppressors in caste narratives,” the study noted.

“Participants exposed to the DEI content were markedly more likely to endorse Hitler’s demonization statements, agreeing that Brahmins are ‘parasites’ (+35.4%), ‘viruses’ (+33.8%), and ‘the devil personified’ (+27.1%) … These findings suggest that exposure to anti-oppressive narratives can increase the endorsement of the type of demonization and scapegoating characteristic of authoritarianism,” researchers stated.

Due to concern that Critical Race Theory and DEI programming foster increased prejudice and division, Oklahoma lawmakers tried to eliminate those materials from state colleges and public K-12 schools in 2021.

House Bill 1775 made it illegal to teach Oklahoma students that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex,” that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously,” and other concepts broadly associated with Critical Race Theory.

The law also stated, “No enrolled student of an institution of higher education within The Oklahoma State System of Higher Education shall be required to engage in any form of mandatory gender or sexual diversity training or counseling; provided, voluntary counseling shall not be prohibited. Any orientation or requirement that presents any form of race or sex stereotyping or a bias on the basis of race or sex shall be prohibited.”

When HB 1775 was being debated, University of Oklahoma President Joseph Harroz declared it to be “contrary” to OU’s goals as an institution.

HB 1775 has since been challenged in court by officials and groups that support Critical Race Theory. In June, a federal court granted a partial preliminary injunction that prevents enforcement of the law’s prohibition on college trainings.

The case is ongoing.

The Rutgers and NCRI researchers noted that a 2023 study by the Pew Research Center found 52 percent of American workers have DEI meetings or training events at work, and Iris Bohnet, a professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School, estimated $8 billion is spent annually on DEI programs.