Exploring the counteractive effects of mandating diversity training: Solution aversion, reactance, and polarized social beliefs.

A common strategy to address social inequity in organizations is to implement mandatory diversity training policies. But how do people react to such mandates? Mandating such training can signal the importance of diversity-related issues (e.g., discrimination), potentially increasing acknowledgment of these problems. However, integrating the theory of psychological reactance (Brehm, 1966) with the notion of solution aversion (Campbell & Kay, 2014), we suggest that learning about mandatory diversity training initiatives (compared to optional ones) could also exert an opposing effect, engendering negative emotional responses (i.e., reactance) which fuel increased political polarization surrounding beliefs that diversity-related problems still persist (i.e., solution aversion). Four preregistered experiments support this hypothesis. Study 1 and Study 2a demonstrate that recalling or anticipating mandatory (compared to optional) diversity training leads to increased reactance, which in turn leads to increased denial that social inequity is a problem. Study 2b shows that the effect is unique to mandatory diversity training, but not mandatory training unrelated to diversity. Study 3, via tests of parallel mediation, demonstrates that this effect counteracts the positive effect that mandating training policies have via signaled importance of the problem. Importantly, in all studies, we observe a consistent pattern of moderation by political orientation, such that reactance-induced negative emotions predict denial of discrimination more strongly for more politically conservative (compared to liberal) participants. Our research has significant implications for understanding the repercussions of mandatory diversity training policies, as well as the potential role of imposing solutions on exacerbating political polarization surrounding issues of social inequity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Duke Scholars

Author Gavan J. Fitzsimons Fuqua School of Business

Author Aaron Charles Kay Fuqua School of Business