The isolated choice effect: An underlying psychological mechanism influencing racial diversity in organizations
With the view toward improving the racial diversity in organizations, this work seeks to uncover the reasons why larger groups have an advantage in terms of job opportunities. Based on people’s preference for diversity in commodity selection, we propose a potential feature that may exist in human re...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.964959/full |
| _version_ | 1798037653030961152 |
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| author | Hanyang Luo Wanhua Zhou Wugang Song |
| author_facet | Hanyang Luo Wanhua Zhou Wugang Song |
| author_sort | Hanyang Luo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | With the view toward improving the racial diversity in organizations, this work seeks to uncover the reasons why larger groups have an advantage in terms of job opportunities. Based on people’s preference for diversity in commodity selection, we propose a potential feature that may exist in human resource management and call it the isolated choice effect, which unconsciously affects the racial diversity of organizations. Specifically, when making selections in isolation (i.e., when they are responsible for selecting a single person at a time), people are less likely to choose the one whose race would increase group diversity than when making selections in collections (i.e., when they are responsible for selecting several people at a time). We set up eight experiments (n = 2,792) in which participants make hiring or firing decisions among choices that are more white people than black people. We find that participants in the isolated choice group are less likely to choose black people, the smaller group, than those in the collective choice group. Our results show a potentially important contributing factor to the underrepresentation of black people in many organizations because hires are often made in isolation while layoffs are often made in collections, which provides a starting point for improving racial diversity in organizations by avoiding the isolated choice effect. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T21:29:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-687550aab6ce4bda9e55744390dba84c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T21:29:28Z |
| publishDate | 2022-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-687550aab6ce4bda9e55744390dba84c2022-12-22T04:02:15ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-08-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.964959964959The isolated choice effect: An underlying psychological mechanism influencing racial diversity in organizationsHanyang LuoWanhua ZhouWugang SongWith the view toward improving the racial diversity in organizations, this work seeks to uncover the reasons why larger groups have an advantage in terms of job opportunities. Based on people’s preference for diversity in commodity selection, we propose a potential feature that may exist in human resource management and call it the isolated choice effect, which unconsciously affects the racial diversity of organizations. Specifically, when making selections in isolation (i.e., when they are responsible for selecting a single person at a time), people are less likely to choose the one whose race would increase group diversity than when making selections in collections (i.e., when they are responsible for selecting several people at a time). We set up eight experiments (n = 2,792) in which participants make hiring or firing decisions among choices that are more white people than black people. We find that participants in the isolated choice group are less likely to choose black people, the smaller group, than those in the collective choice group. Our results show a potentially important contributing factor to the underrepresentation of black people in many organizations because hires are often made in isolation while layoffs are often made in collections, which provides a starting point for improving racial diversity in organizations by avoiding the isolated choice effect.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.964959/fullisolated choice effectvariety seekingracial diversity in organizationscombined and separated choicesworkforce diversityorganizational psychology |
| spellingShingle | Hanyang Luo Wanhua Zhou Wugang Song The isolated choice effect: An underlying psychological mechanism influencing racial diversity in organizations Frontiers in Psychology isolated choice effect variety seeking racial diversity in organizations combined and separated choices workforce diversity organizational psychology |
| title | The isolated choice effect: An underlying psychological mechanism influencing racial diversity in organizations |
| title_full | The isolated choice effect: An underlying psychological mechanism influencing racial diversity in organizations |
| title_fullStr | The isolated choice effect: An underlying psychological mechanism influencing racial diversity in organizations |
| title_full_unstemmed | The isolated choice effect: An underlying psychological mechanism influencing racial diversity in organizations |
| title_short | The isolated choice effect: An underlying psychological mechanism influencing racial diversity in organizations |
| title_sort | isolated choice effect an underlying psychological mechanism influencing racial diversity in organizations |
| topic | isolated choice effect variety seeking racial diversity in organizations combined and separated choices workforce diversity organizational psychology |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.964959/full |
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