Princeton psychology professor Betsy Levy Paluck has an op-ed in today's Washington Post pointing out the dearth of research showing that diversity training programs do much to enhance diversity or inclusion within organizations.
The piece begins:
What have we achieved with all this effort? In 2022, this question has special significance, as measures to increase diversity and racial equity have come under political attack, often by people who believe those shouldn't be goals in the first place. But even among people who believe in the basic mission, common questions about diversity training have shifted from "Which training is best?" to "Is the training even a good idea?" and "Does the training have negative effects?"
The problem is that the real answer to all three of these questions is: We don't know.