The diversity paradox: when people who value diversity surround themselves with like-minded others

• Published in: Journal of applied social psychology 2014-06, Vol.44 (6), p.415-422
• Main Authors: Hackett, Justin D., Hogg, Michael A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavioral psychology; Multiculturalism & pluralism; Social identity; Social psychology
• ISSN: 0021-9029; 1559-1816
• DOI: 10.1111/jasp.12233

An anomaly exists between society's push for diversity and people's preference to be with like‐minded others—a diversity paradox. Research suggests it is endemic to group life to accentuate similarity within groups and maximize differences between groups. Drawing on uncertainty–identity theory, that uncertainty motivates identification with clearly defined groups, we explore whether increasing community identification to alleviate self‐uncertainty is impacted when diversity is important. In a naturalistic experiment, values match and placing importance on diversity each predicted community identification. Uncertainty decreased identification when diversity was important. Greater identification emerged when diversity and value similarity were important. This effect, strong under low uncertainty, did not emerge under high uncertainty. Findings are discussed in terms of the antagonism between society's push for diversity and research on the psychology of groups.