Engaging with Diversity: How Positive and Negative Diversity Interactions Influence Students’ Cognitive Outcomes

ABSTRACT

Although a growing body of research has demonstrated the value of interacting with diverse peers, a number of questions remain about the relationship between the quality of students’ diversity interactions and their cognitive development. In a longitudinal study following 3 cohorts of students from entry into college through the end of their 4th year, we examined how students’ positive and negative diversity interactions were related to 2 different outcomes: need for cognition and critical thinking skills. The results indicated that negative diversity interactions were strongly related to both outcomes, and that was the case for students of color and their white peers. Positive diversity interactions, on the other hand, were related to students’ need for cognition but not their critical thinking skills, and these interactions disproportionately benefitted white students. We conclude by considering the implications for understanding students’ cognitive development and implementing policies and practices that can facilitate positive outcomes on college campuses.

KEYWORDS:

• Diversity
• race
• cognitive development
• student development

Acknowledgement

The authors thank the Spencer Foundation for their generous support of this project.

Notes

^1. We have not conducted interviews for this study to ascertain students’ accounts of what constitutes positive and negative experiences. However, we have conducted dozens of informal focus groups across WNS campuses, including those at which students reported high levels of positive as well as negative diversity experiences, and our discussions with these students provide some relevant insights. Students seem to focus on the key words in the statements, including “meaningful,” “serious,” and “sharing personal feelings.” Students, for example, make comments such as: “We talk about hair and parties a lot, but we don’t have many meaningful conversations with people who are different than us,” indicating that positive interactions are not just about casual encounters but that they reflect a deeper sense of engagement. Negative experiences similarly reflect the depth of the words noted in the statements, including “silenced,” “hurt,” and “insulted or threatened.” Students discuss experiences that have led them to be notably impacted, feeling like shutting down and wishing to withdraw from further interactions.

^2. Given the small number of students of color in the sample, there were on average only 10 to 11 students of color per institution, with the distribution varying notably across schools.

^3. Supplemental analyses indicate that most of the gap (three quarters) between white students and students of color in critical thinking at the end of college is explained by differences in critical thinking at college entry.