Tanya’s “Rude” Awakening
Tanya was surprised and puzzled. The training facilitator had just walked the class through an exercise. It brought her and the other participants to the sober reality that training is generally ineffective for changing people’s attitudes. It was disappointing because she fully expected to learn how to straighten out some of the backward thinking people in her workplace.
When organizations offer cultural diversity awareness training, doesn’t that imply changing attitudes? Something needs to be done about the micro-inequities, sense of privilege and general unfairness that historically excluded group (HEG) members continue to endure. Are we doomed if training can’t do this?
Tanya asks great questions and makes some important points. The need to protect HEGs is real and very important. It makes sense to view training as the most effective solution for making prejudiced and biased people more inclusive. Yet, social science research consistently conveys the harsh reality that direct attempts to change attitudes generally do not work.
Sacred Values & Beliefs
Attitudes reflect deeply committed values and beliefs. That makes it difficult to listen when someone calls them into question. Consider today’s Catholics. Even though the Catholic church is steeped in a priest sexual misconduct controversy, Catholics are not abandoning the church. They separate their faith in Catholicism from the conduct problems among priest in order to preserve a positive sense of religious identity.
We also tend to hold unconscious biases. When we confront someone about their sexist actions, the accused seldom acknowledge it and often become angry. It is natural to think that confronting them is the best thing to do. The problem is that the accused can too easily duck and dodge facing the truth. Bias is frowned upon in our society, so it is difficult to personally accept. It is much easier to say that you are not a mind reader.
People do change their attitudes. It’s just that they resist when others attempt to do it for them. Most Americans do not view themselves as prejudiced and biased. Any effort to tell them otherwise is resisted. This makes designing training to improve cultural diversity awareness ill-advised.
The good news is that when there is self-interest, people will likely change their attitudes. This means that you need to come up with clever ways of getting participants to see that change is in their best interest.
Here are five exercises I have found very effective for designing attitude change training:
- How Inclusive Are You? Exercise. This is one of my favorites. Participants will need one copy of How Inclusive Are You (See below)? They will also need to complete the Implicit Bias Test online for the gender, race, and gay-lesbian categories. Make certain that they complete the How Inclusive Are You exercise before getting their Implicit Bias scores.
Most participants believe that they are very open and tolerant. The result is that their self-score is high across the gender, gay-lesbian, and race categories on the How Inclusive Are You self-assessment. Reality sets in when the Implicit Bias scores are compared to the self-scoring items. The contradiction between the two sets of scores engages them in self-confrontation.
Discuss what it means to the participants when their scores are inconsistent. Do not require them to share their scores unless they want to volunteer. It is enough that they can follow the discussion with the information about their performance.
Give them recommendations for inconsistent sets of scores and ask them to come up with ideas.
1. Asking Powerful Questions Technique.
Asking people questions when they say or do something that reeks of prejudice or result in a micro-aggression can reduce resistance. Asking questions engages them in critical thinking. The natural thing to do is to just get in their face and try to straighten them out. You can do this if you simply want to feel better and accept the consequences, but do so fully aware that they will likely not listen or accept your confrontational style.
A powerful question engages people in self-confrontation even if they refuse to answer it. That’s because human beings are wired to answer questions posed to them. No matter how hard they try to avoid it, they end it coming up with an answer. They may not share it with you.
It does not matter if they do not choose to answer your question. The most important thing is that you get them thinking. A person who discounts HEGs’ stories about being discriminated against is a good example. The first thought is to get into the person’s face and emphatically say that discounting the person’s experience is rude or a reflection of privilege. A more effective response is to ask “What if what the person has been describing is true? Just consider the possibility without needing to accept it. What would it mean for you if what the person describes is true?”
Notice that you have not tried to convince the person to accept what has been shared or imply that the world actually works that way. It is effective because it increases empathy and does attack the individual’s values.
2. Argue an Opposing Viewpoint Activity. The final example is an exercise that requires participants to learn about and argue a point of view that is contrary to their own. Instead of an open-ended discussion about whether or not the United States need secure borders with Mexico, the facilitator can create an opposing view presentation exercise. One of the best sources for “hot cultural diversity topics” is the publications Opposing Viewpoints. It is published annually. Experts in subject areas write opposing views on the topics to serve as classroom and training resources. Black Lives Matter, Feminism, and Sanctuary Cities are examples of topics in the annual publication.
The facilitator randomly assigns participants to groups to ensure that at least some people will study and argue the viewpoint that is opposite their own. If possible, it is better to put participants in the opposing viewpoint group. They study the viewpoint in their group and develop a short presentation to the larger group that argues its validity.
None of this means that you can’t change someone’s attitude. It simply means that you need to be clever about getting them to volunteer to do so. Stop trying to fruitlessly change attitudes. Find clever ways to get people to think critically about their views and the consequences for connecting with others.
Resources
Vaughn, B. (2018). No, we actually can read a bigot’s minds. In Diversity Officer Magazine. https://diversityofficermagazine.com/no-we-actually-can-read-a-bigots-mind/.
Vaughn, B. (N.D.). Powerful questions for correcting someone’s cultural diversity misconceptions. In Diversity Officer Magazine. https://diversityofficermagazine.com/diversity-inclusion/powerful-questions-for-correcting-someones-diversity-misconceptions/
Greenhaven Publishing (2019). Opposing Viewpoints Greenhaven Publishing. New York, N.Y.
https://greenhavenpublishing.com/series/Opposing-Viewpoints-Fall-2018