Harnessing Behavioral Insights to Foster Organizational Diversity: Evidence from a Decade of Research

In this talk, I will explore how behavioral science insights can be harnessed to enhance organizational diversity, drawing on findings from nine empirical papers I’ve co-authored over the past decade. These papers include experiments run in the laboratory and the field with over 30,000 participants as well as analyses of archival data, and they provide several key takeaways. First, the short, online diversity trainings that have become ubiquitous in organizations are unlikely to produce meaningful increases in diversity in their current form. More effective interventions typically (1) draw decision makers’ attention indirectly and implicitly (e.g., through changes in choice architecture) to an absence of diversity, the risk of exhibiting prejudice, or the risk of appearing more prejudiced than their peers (2) at moments when those decision makers are empowered to hire, promote or otherwise advance women and minorities. Such interventions often trigger impression management concerns in a timely manner without generating backlash and thereby increase support for underrepresented candidates. Additional promising approaches include reminding women to defy societal stereotypes that might discourage them from competing and mandating the inclusion of minority candidates in finalist pools. The latter approach not only increases the diversity of hires mechanically (you can’t hire a candidate who isn’t a finalist) but also signals an organization’s commitment to diversity, which can itself change hiring decisions. Finally, I will discuss the implications of these findings for the design of future interventions and suggest directions for further research in this area.

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