Celebrating or Ignoring Differences: An Examination of Multidimensional Psychosocial Factors and Future Orientation Affected by Diversity Ideologies

Diversity is a critical subject for researchers and policymakers who aim to foster inclusion, equity, and equality, and it is one of the characterizing aspects of contemporary society. Diversity ideologies are practices and beliefs concerning how to best manage diversity and whether the differences among groups with different social identities should be recognized or ignored to achieve a harmonious society. Based on the social categorization approach, diversity ideologies are mainly studied in two categories. Firstly, the identity-blind diversity ideologies argue that creating a common overarching social identity would reduce discrimination through activating ingroup favoritism; therefore, ignoring or minimizing the differences between social identities would have better outcomes. The second category, identity-conscious diversity ideologies, argues that social categorizations are made automatically, and social group memberships are an essential source for the self. Thus, differences between social identities should be recognized and valued for the best outcomes. The most studied contexts for diversity ideologies are race/ethnicity and gender, and different diversity ideologies have been found to be related to diverse outcomes in their targets in previous studies. To this day, many countries, organizations, and individuals, while giving statements about diversity, include many social categories in different domains while keeping the same approach. In light of the earlier research, the study examines the effect of identity-blind and identity-conscious diversity ideologies on multiple psychosocial factors when the diversity ideologies are broadened to include more social categories. In addition, the study also examines the effect of a sense of inclusion/acceptance on multiple outcomes.