This article forms part of the report ‘Policies and practices for diversity and inclusion: A special study on functional diversity’, published by the Esade Institute for Social Innovation and Ranstad. 

Biases are cognitive shortcuts — the result of a rapid, automatic system of thinking — which lead us to classify people intuitively and unconsciously. For example, a bias can push us to feel a natural preference for some people due to affinity or belonging to a group. In reality, all biases have an effect on our daily actions and the decisions we make, but some can have a greater influence on questions of diversity.  

Recent research on bias and diversity by Esade's De keersmaecker and Schmid has found that “the presence of selective exposure bias (the act of choosing to consume information aligned with pre-existing beliefs) can be used to predict negative beliefs over time, with those opposed to diversity more likely to strengthen their opinions.” It has been demonstrated that the future views of participants who displayed an anti-diversity stance could be predicted. However, displaying a selective exposure bias did not impact the future views of those who were pro-diversity. 

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Article published in Esade Do Better