- acknowledging and doing something about the differences amongst social groups
- the differences are important because people have different experiences and perspectives 
- previous research has shown that is better 
- Associated with “an increased sense of agency, self-confidence, and engagement”
- Helps to improve “URM students’ psychological experiences and engagement-related outcomes”
- in the study, operationalized as “only by learning about people with different backgrounds and viewpoints can we challenge our assumptions, test our ideas, and broaden our understanding of the world.”

multiculturalism ideology 

- differences between groups should be ignored-if we ignore them, then we cannot exercise biases against them 
- Operationalized by emphasizing individualism (judging people based on their own personal achievement) and the commonalities amongst individuals (the social group should be ignored because everyone is basically the same)
- in the study, operationalized as “only by learning about the unique perspectives and qualities of each and every individual community member can we challenge our assumptions, test our ideas, and broaden our understanding of the world.”

colorblind ideology 

This study examined the difference in effect of colorblind and multiculturalism ideologies 

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

- The study analyzed underrepresented racial minority students (URM)'s grades over 2 years in comparison to white/asian students 
- They found that a multicultural approach to diversity ideologies help to improve URMs grades (and does not affect white/asian students), and thus helps to close the racial achievement gap 
- main takeaway-colleges cannot simply acknowledge diversity and inclusion-the specific way that they go about it matters 

multiculturalism vs colorblind diversity ideology-reducing the racial achievement gap 

Birnbaum, H. J., Stephens, N. M., Townsend, S. S., & Hamedani, M. G. (2020). A diversity ideology intervention: Multiculturalism reduces the racial achievement gap. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1948550620938227.

Diversity ideologies 

- 1-the Multiculturalism intervention instead of the colorblindness intervention will increase grades of URM students
- 2-the multiculturalism intervention will increase grades of URM students in comparison to those who did not have any interventions 
- 3-the multiculturalism intervention compared to the colorblindness intervention will increase the students’ engagement and college experience in general
- 4-the multiculturalism and colorblind interventions alike will not impact asian and white students 


Hypotheses of diversity ideology experiment 

- 407 participants (assigned a treatment)-38% URMs 
- Comparison group (not assigned a treatment)-1221 non participants (222 URMs)
- Randomly assigned to colorblind diversity statement or multiculturalism diversity statement during the first semester during college 
- Students had to read about a potential diversity statement which encouraged diversity and inclusion 
- After they read the statement, they took a survey 
- Completed an end of the year statement to see how engaged the students were 

methods/procedures of diversity ideology study

- 2 x 3 anova- (URM vs white/asian) and (multiculturalism vs colorblindness vs control)
- Significant interaction between race and condition 
- URM students in the multiculturalism condition scored significantly better than students in the colorblind condition 
- URM students in the multiculturalism condition scored significantly better than students with no intervention at all 
- URM students in the colorblind group performed the same as URM students with no intervention at all 
- The interventions did not impact the performance of white/asian students
- Found a racial achievement gap in the colorblind and control conditions 
- The achievement gap was much smaller in the multiculturalism condition-the GPAs were not statistically significantly different from white/asian students 
- Analyzed grades across time→ the intervention effects did not waver as time persisted 


results of diversity ideology study 

- Difference education teaches students about the contexts of their differences and why they have developed over time 
- Difference education explains how differences can be both positive and negative 


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