Do you think there is strength in diversity and something that should be sought

[UglyCasanova]

Whether it be race, sex, religion, whatever, what is your opinion on there being an inherent strength with "diversity" and is it something that we should push for as a society? What happens when someone who is in the majority is harmed because of it, does the benefits outweigh the costs?

When talking about immigration for instance you’ll often hear that the US is stronger due to having a very diverse population rather than a homogenized one. Where does that strength come from or is it just a marketing tool? Japan for instance isnt diverse at all but they have a well functioning society and are doing just fine (comparatively) economically. Is their homogenous society a weakness or a strength?

Same for sex, companies (Google being the one in the news) have diversity officers and push for hiring more women. Is there a value in doing so other than public relations and do you think there is any weakness that comes along with not necessarily hiring the best/most capable but hiring to hit a target quota?

Question I guess not being should we attempt to right the wrongs of the past which I get, but it’s being sold as a strength and I'm wondering if that is really true or not.

 

[dank69]

A diversified population is good for many of the same reasons that a diversified portfolio is good.

 

[UglyCasanova]

A diversified population is good for many of the same reasons that a diversified portfolio is good.

How so? It may be true but what about it makes it good other than "it just is".

 

[fskimospy]

Whether it be race, sex, religion, whatever, what is your opinion on there being an inherent strength with "diversity" and is it something that we should push for as a society? What happens when someone who is in the majority is harmed because of it, does the benefits outweigh the costs?

When talking about immigration for instance you’ll often hear that the US is stronger due to having a very diverse population rather than a homogenized one. Where does that strength come from or is it just a marketing tool? Japan for instance isnt diverse at all but they have a well functioning society and are doing just fine (comparatively) economically. Is their homogenous society a weakness or a strength?

Same for sex, companies (Google being the one in the news) have diversity officers and push for hiring more women. Is there a value in doing so other than public relations and do you think there is any weakness that comes along with not necessarily hiring the best/most capable but hiring to hit a target quota?

Question I guess not being should we attempt to right the wrongs of the past which I get, but it’s being sold as a strength and I'm wondering if that is really true or not.

Most empirical research shows that diversity is simply an objective positive when it comes to business decisions, so yes. For example here:

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/52/18524.abstract

Markets are central to modern society, so their failures can have devastating effects. Here, we examine a prominent failure: price bubbles. We propose that bubbles are affected by ethnic homogeneity in the market and can be thwarted by diversity. Using experimental markets in Southeast Asia and North America, we find a marked difference: Market prices fit true values 58% better in diverse markets. In homogenous markets, overpricing is higher and traders’ errors are more correlated than in diverse markets. The findings suggest that price bubbles arise not only from individual errors or financial conditions, but also from the social context of decision making. Informing public discussion, our findings suggest that diversity facilitates friction that enhances deliberation and upends conformity.

Lots of other examples too. Basically as dank69 was suggesting, diversity is a hedge against groupthink, allowing teams and markets to function more efficiently by not locking people into bad ideas or correlating errors.

 

[dank69]

How so? It may be true but what about it makes it good other than "it just is".

The strengths of one group can make up for the weaknesses of another, and vice versa. Also are you familiar with why mutts tend to be healthier and live longer than purebreds?

 

[brycejones]

OP, I believe there is a fair amount of research out there, especially in regards to diversity in business. You really should do some research.

 

[soulcougher73]

As much as i wish diversity wasnt a bad thing, i feel it is just due to human nature in a large part. It does appear most homogenized countries fair a lot better as far as running the country goes when most people are on the same page and want the same things overall. I wont touch on the company/economy part as i dont really know enough about that. The US is so diverse hardly anything ever gets accomplished it seems. As soon as you think you are taking one step forwards its pulled out under you in a few years before it ever got legs.

Just my opinion on what i've seen in my 44 years.

 

[FIVR]

Diversity would've helped Japan pull itself out of its 20 year long population and economic decline but instead they're more interested in sexualizing children and right wing nationalism.


If the US was anything like Japan, I would leave.

 

[vi edit]

I don't know if stronger is the right adjective, but certainly much more fun, interesting and enjoyable. From food, to music, to art and cultural traditions it provides experiences that a closed off culture normally wouldn't have. My wife and I bailed on small town midwest for that exact reason. Boring foods, boring and stale traditions, and just overall closed minded and boring people. We wanted our kids to grow up in a more diverse area. Now Lexington, KY isn't NYC by any stretch of the imagination, but my kids are getting introduced to foreign languages starting in kindergarten and the schools here are only 60-70% caucasion compared to the 99.9% that my wife and I had. There is a lot of experience and perspective gained from that. I don't want my kids growing up fearing people of a different color or country and being scared of eating something that isn't from McDonalds or Wendy's.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Homogenization and Stagnation are the antithesis of life, in every respect. Diversity and Activity are what moves everything, and what should be aspired to in every facet of humanity.

 

[pmv]

I really don't see that one can make an absolute statement that covers all cases either way. Depends on what kind of diversity, in what context. Depends what you are trying to achieve, at the very least. It's also almost a meaningless word, because it depends what characteristics you choose to consider as important. Often something is said to be 'diverse' and then someone looks at it in terms of the categories they are more inclined to notice and it appears not diverse at all (we have women and men equally, and several different races...of course they are all from upper-middle-class backgrounds and very affluent, mostly think alike, and few of them associate with anyone who doesn't have at least a PhD, yet alone anyone who isn't a college graduate, but hey they are 'diverse'...).

Limiting it to 'business science' or whatever it's called, I suppose one might be able to say something definitive, but that's slightly begging the question in terms of deciding what your measure of 'good' is.

There are many contexts in which a particular kind of diversity can be good for a particular purpose, absolutely, but I wonder whether people can overdo singing the praises of diversity for it's own sake. More than a few 'ethnically diverse' countries have collapsed into civil/secessionist war. Though perhaps the issue is that sometimes people have to separate first before they can come together again on better terms?

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Regions with high diversity tend to be liberal
Liberals are weak pussies
Ergo, diversity is weakness

Fairly certain that's the basic idea behind right-wing xenophobia.

 

[Homerboy]

Regions with high diversity tend to be liberal
Liberals are weak pussies
Ergo, diversity is weakness

Fairly certain that's the basic idea behind right-wing xenophobia.

Ironically, Los Angeles, NYC, Seattle etc - all quite diverse - are the most powerful cities in the nation.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Ironically, Los Angeles, NYC, Seattle etc - all quite diverse - are the most powerful cities in the nation.

But Seattle implemented a $15 minimum wage, banned plastic bags and implemented a sugar tax! Lib snowflakes!

 

[IronWing]

Diversity brings better food, better music, different folks to leer at, and more ammo for inappropriate jokes. It's a win-win-win-win.

 

[Homerboy]

Diversity brings better food, better music, different folks to leer at, and more ammo for inappropriate jokes. It's a win-win-win-win.

While all those things are great - diversity brings (wait for it...) diverse view points to any and every topic. I realize that being born a middle class, white male I may just have a different view point than somebody without those adjectives. Society should represent everyone's viewpoint - not just mine.

 

[realibrad]

What about diversity in terms of wrong and right ideas? For example, the belief of flat earth is strangely gaining popularity. Is it good for society to have these things in it?

 

[1sikbITCH]

Seems like an obvious yes of course it's important. My dad lived in his white enclave with all white people and no internet, warning us of the dark shadow creeping out from the city. My folks have moved 3 times to escape black people moving in. Now they live on the moon I grew up learning black jokes and slurs before I ever even met a black person. My grandma called black folks "coloreds". My dad commonly threatened to drop me off in the city if I wanted to be lazy like a n#gger. They don't see or talk to any black folks ever. To this day there has been no change in attitude except for Grandma (she died).

Growing up under the thumb of that stupidity has made me extremely angry towards racism in later life, and makes me also seek out opportunities to mix with other cultures and learn more about them instead of hanging on to the ignorance.

 

[pmv]

What about diversity in terms of wrong and right ideas? For example, the belief of flat earth is strangely gaining popularity. Is it good for society to have these things in it?

Indeed how many flat-earthers should your university astronomy department employ? How many homeopaths should your hospital employ? How many Nazis should your anti-racism group include? How many trans-gender people should your radical feminist collective admit? Seems everyone would admit that there are limits to diversity, so no-one says its an absolute good, its all about arguing specific cases, and you can't say it is intrinsically good or bad, surely?

Also that's pretty much Feyerabend's territory, he did tend to favour radical diversity of theories and ideas, i.e. I gather he'd see benefit in those tentured flat-earthers or hospital homeopaths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Feyerabend

 

[1sikbITCH]

What about diversity in terms of wrong and right ideas? For example, the belief of flat earth is strangely gaining popularity. Is it good for society to have these things in it?

Good question, was not thinking in those terms. The answer is yes it makes it easier to spot those in need of treatment.

 

[realibrad]

Good question, was not thinking in those terms. The answer is yes it makes it easier to spot those in need of treatment.

Take that to its logical extremes and see where you end up. Confine it to diversity of thought and not of action to make it easier.

Is racism bad if no action is taken? How about sexism? Pedophilia?

Diversity is not always good. It becomes very difficult to explain when its good and when its not.

 

[realibrad]

Indeed how many flat-earthers should your university astronomy department employ? How many homeopaths should your hospital employ? How many Nazis should your anti-racism group include? How many trans-gender people should your radical feminist collective admit? Seems everyone would admit that there are limits to diversity, so no-one says its an absolute good, its all about arguing specific cases, and you can't say it is intrinsically good or bad, surely?

Also that's pretty much Feyerabend's territory, he did tend to favour radical diversity of theories and ideas, i.e. I gather he'd see benefit in those tentured flat-earthers or hospital homeopaths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Feyerabend

And this is where markets can come into play! Let ideas stand against other ideas and battle it out. Allow for diversity of thought (not action) and see what wins. There will be vastly more "good" ideas than "bad". Let someone come to the right answer rather than to force it upon them as a general rule, but not always

 

[Puffnstuff]

I know when I was in manufacturing intellectual diversity allowed for the application of many different approaches to problem solving that would many times create a resolution that differed from the mainstream organizational thinking. Going outside of the normalized box allows organizations to achieve greater things when these different strengths are combined so solve issues that the status quo group think couldn't see past. I was one of those outside contributors with a much different experience than my peers which allowed me to see the situation much differently so I could offer different solutions to the issues at hand.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Diversity is great when you have a common goal. Too many folks don't have any goal other than making it to the weekend though.

 

[cytg111]

Whether it be race, sex, religion, whatever, what is your opinion on there being an inherent strength with "diversity" and is it something that we should push for as a society? What happens when someone who is in the majority is harmed because of it, does the benefits outweigh the costs?

When talking about immigration for instance you’ll often hear that the US is stronger due to having a very diverse population rather than a homogenized one. Where does that strength come from or is it just a marketing tool? Japan for instance isnt diverse at all but they have a well functioning society and are doing just fine (comparatively) economically. Is their homogenous society a weakness or a strength?

Same for sex, companies (Google being the one in the news) have diversity officers and push for hiring more women. Is there a value in doing so other than public relations and do you think there is any weakness that comes along with not necessarily hiring the best/most capable but hiring to hit a target quota?

Question I guess not being should we attempt to right the wrongs of the past which I get, but it’s being sold as a strength and I'm wondering if that is really true or not.

You can leapfrog everything inbetween if you aquire this belief. Equality.
Every single individual must share the same rights and oppertunities in society. - Why? Cause any other scenario results in conflict and subsequent sociological regression.
Accept this and you will realize that any small penalty you might pay for diversity in select situations is well worth the pay.