Cornell Keynotes

Does Diversity Influence Creativity? The Psychology and Science of Workplace Creative Outcomes

Episode Summary

How does team diversity influence perceptions of creativity? Despite mixed evidence on the direct relationship between demographic diversity and creative outcomes, people generally tend to believe that diverse teams are inherently more creative.

Episode Notes

Join Devon Proudfoot from Cornell’s ILR School as we discuss her groundbreaking research on this "diversity heuristic" — a lay belief that demographic diversity enhances creativity — and its profound implications for organizations, team dynamics, and the evaluation of creative work.

Drawing on findings from studies involving over 5,500 participants, the discussion will cover key insights, including:

• Observers consistently perceive demographically diverse teams (in terms of race and gender) as more creative than homogeneous ones.
• Products attributed to diverse teams are judged as more creative, even if they may be identical to those of homogeneous teams.
• Manipulating perceptions of cognitive diversity can shift judgments of team creativity.
• There is evidence of a relationship between the proportion of racial minorities or women in a group and judgments of creativity.

This webinar is ideal for organizational leaders, HR professionals, diversity and inclusion advocates, creativity researchers, and anyone interested in understanding how beliefs about diversity shape workplace outcomes.

What You'll Learn:

• The ways in which psychological mechanisms can drive the association between diversity and creativity
• How the diversity heuristic influences real-world judgments, including in competitive organizational settings
• Actionable strategies to align team composition with creativity assessments in professional contexts