How Feedback Shapes White Leaders’ Efforts Toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Abstract

For leaders and organizations, feedback is a crucial part of reaching any goal, including those around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. However, we know little about how people react to receiving feedback about their interracial attitudes and behaviors. This work investigates how such feedback impacts White Americans’ subsequent interracial behavior. Two studies find that White liberals use less competence-related language with a Black interaction partner after receiving positive (vs. negative) feedback on their racial egalitarianism. This builds on previous research by Dupree & Fiske (2019), which finds that White liberals use less competence-related language with Black Americans than White Americans in a likely well-meaning, but ultimately patronizing, phenomenon known as the competence downshift. The current work reveals that, for White liberals, receiving positive feedback about their egalitarianism might amplify the competence downshift, potentially magnifying group divides. Leaders must carefully consider downstream behavioral consequences of delivering equity-related feedback in organizations.