Colorblind vs. Multicultural Diversity Messages

Research on diversity messaging/framing has really taken off in the past few years. My work shows that exposing undergraduate women of color to a colorblind (we treat everyone the same, emphasize similarities between groups) as compared to a multicultural (we acknowledge and value group differences) diversity message results in greater perceived bias and lower perceived performance in a university setting (Wilton, Good, Moss-Racusin, & Sanchez, 2015). Multicultural messages are generally viewed positively by the psychological community, but may have some unintended consequences. I am currently investigating whether multicultural messages may lead to increased essentialist beliefs about race.

For the next three years, I will be focused on an NSF-funded investigation of the use of classroom diversity philosophies, and the impact on women and underrepresented racial minority students’ performance and persistence in STEM  courses. I am currently hiring a Lab Manager and recruiting student research assistants to work on this set of experiments. If you would like to be a part of the project, email jegood@davidson.edu.