Training & Evaluation

Introduction Corporations and higher education institutions have been offering diversity training for decades. Yet countless studies dating back to the 1930s indicate that anti-bias training does not reduce bias, alter behavior, or improve the workplace. Despite these shortfalls, organizations continue to rely on diversity training due to concerns relating to optics, litigation, and perceived lack…

Although the nonprofit sector is recognizing its own need for greater diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the implementation of DEI strategies generally stops at the interpersonal level and few nonprofits have addressed the structures and systems that keep these racialized barriers in place. Introduction Four years ago, the Building Movement Project (BMP) studied the racial…

Introduction Organizations, companies, and public sector institutions are increasingly concerned with gender equity. From national and municipal gender budgeting to corporate gender equality tracking, these and other worldwide efforts are trying to answer a central question: How can we treat people of all genders fairly and provide equitable opportunities and outcomes for everyone? This vision,…

Introduction In this paper, Dr. Carol T. Kulik and Dr. Loriann Roberson investigate the effects of diversity education interventions across different learning outcomes and contexts. In conducting their literature review, Kulik and Roberson aimed to answer two questions: Does diversity education affect participant diversity knowledge, diversity attitudes, and diversity skills? Do these effects vary by…

Introduction Over the past several decades, there has been an increase in efforts to diversify the American corporate workforce. In 2018, the employment search engine Indeed saw an 18% increase in diversity and inclusion job postings from the previous year, and a 2017 report indicated that about $8 billion is spent annually on diversity training.…

Introduction In psychological research, prejudice and discrimination dominate as key areas of research. This should come as no surprise considering the sheer amount of resources spent by policymakers and educators alike to reduce prejudice. Since the first attempts to measure prejudice in the mid-1920s, social scientists have tried to understand the nature and origins of…

Introduction Unconscious bias training is based on the methodology in social psychology that an individual’s response time when presented with 2 images reveals how closely the viewer unconsciously connects the two. By using two sets of images — one of people with different racial/ethic backgrounds and one of negative or positive attributes, prior researchers have…

Introduction Recent research on implicit social cognition suggests that implicit associations may be malleable to change. However, the majority of studies on modifying implicit associations only evaluate short term results, with only 3.7% of these 585 studies attempting to look at longer-term change. Of these 22 studies, roughly the same number of publications showed lasting…

Introduction In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the quantity and variety of content-based resources available to foundations and nonprofits choosing to address issues of racial equity. Many of these resources, whether workshops, blogs, or books, have contributed to critical discussions on the role and impact foundations and nonprofits have in the…

Introduction Across the United States, there has been a significant increase in demand for diversity training. These training programs have grown in both their importance and accessibility as the United States continues to experience various demographic, economic, and social changes. Many of these trainings are intended to reduce prejudice and discrimination within an organization and…