# What Is "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion", and Is It a Good Thing?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-and-is-it-a-good-thing/999804>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [April 4, 2024, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-and-is-it-a-good-thing/999804 "2024-04-04T01:46:46Z")\
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**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-and-is-it-a-good-thing/999804/7 "2024-04-04T03:32:15Z")

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> [@GIGObuster](#):
>
> A McKinsey & Company study, for example, showed that companies with more gender diversity on their executive teams were 21 percent more likely to outperform less diverse teams in terms of profitability.

The McKinsey study showed a correlation between diversity and profitability (maybe: but I’ll leave that be for now).

It did _not_ show that:

- Diversity _caused_ increased profitability
- Specific DEI policies resulted in increased diversity (or profitability)

And not to put too fine a point on it, but McKinsey sells DEI training programs. That doesn’t by itself make their study wrong, but one should perhaps turn a skeptical eye toward them.

The evidence that DEI programs work at all is mixed at best. For example:

> **[Does Diversity Training Work the Way It’s Supposed To?](https://hbr.org/2019/07/does-diversity-training-work-the-way-its-supposed-to)**
>
> Virtually all Fortune 500 companies offer diversity training to their employees, yet surprisingly few of them have measured its impact. To see how an intervention affects employee attitudes and behavior, a group of researchers designed their own...

> Virtually all Fortune 500 companies offer diversity training to their employees. Yet surprisingly few of them have measured its impact. That’s unfortunate, considering evidence has shown that [diversity training can backfire](https://hbr.org/2016/07/why-diversity-programs-fail), eliciting defensiveness from the very people who might benefit most. And even when the training is beneficial, the effects [may not last](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-29854-001) after the program ends.

> But did the training change _behavior_?

> This brings us to the bad news. We found very little evidence that diversity training affected the behavior of men or white employees overall—the two groups who typically hold the most power in organizations and are often the primary targets of these interventions.

The training wasn’t _completely_ worthless–you can read the article for some of the positives. But it is not nearly as straightforward as proponents make out, especially since the cause/effect relationship between diversity and company performance is also very mixed.

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