White Americans report more positive than negative affect after writing a personal diversity statement.

Abstract

An increasing number of colleges and universities now require graduate student and faculty applicants to submit personal diversity statements for evaluation. Despite their rising use, little is known about how the personal diversity statement writing process is experienced by applicants. For White individuals in particular, their sources of egalitarian motivation may influence affective responses to writing a diversity statement given the content that is typical of these application components and the unease demonstrated in response to diversity-related contexts that is characteristic of White people with a strong external motivation to respond without prejudice. In the present study, White students at an American university participated in a personal diversity statement writing task and self-reported their motivation to respond without prejudice (in advance of the session) and affect (following the writing task). Despite prior research suggesting that they would feel otherwise, participants reported more positive affect compared to negative affect in relation to writing the diversity statement. When considering their sources of motivation, however, White individuals who were more externally motivated to respond without prejudice reported slightly more negative affect in reaction to the diversity statement writing task when compared to those low in external motivation. These findings have implications for the inclusion of personal diversity statements in candidate application materials at various levels of higher education.

Race matters more than racial identity disclosure when evaluating applicant diversity statements

“…Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four diversity statement conditions following the cover story. The diversity statement stimulus was created by integrating common themes pulled from real student‐crafted diversity statements (see Carroll et al, 2022). The content included in each of the four diversity statement conditions was held constant, save for the applicant's race (White vs. Black) and whether they disclosed their race in the diversity statement.…”

“…statements as part of the hiring process or in support of promotion and tenure with the stated goal of cultivating a more diverse and inclusive campus community (see Carroll et al, 2022 for a more detailed discussion of the scope and purpose of personal diversity statements). The institution's ostensible goal in requesting personal diversity statements is to offer a way for applicants to communicate their egalitarian values and explain how their prior experiences will enable them to positively contribute to a diverse and inclusive community.…”

“…The request of such statements has become particularly popular within institutions of higher education. For instance, some colleges and universities rely on personal diversity statements as a means by which to evaluate student applicants' values related to diversity and inclusivity (Paul & Maranto, 2021) and some ask faculty and staff to provide diversity statements as part of the hiring process or in support of promotion and tenure with the stated goal of cultivating a more diverse and inclusive campus community (see Carroll et al, 2022 for a more detailed discussion of the scope and purpose of personal diversity statements). The institution's ostensible goal in requesting personal diversity statements is to offer a way for applicants to communicate their egalitarian values and explain how their prior experiences will enable them to positively contribute to a diverse and inclusive community.…”