We at Do No Harm have long been sounding the alarm over the deleterious effects of DEI training, particularly in the field of medicine where lives are literally at stake. DEI is a radical ideology that encourages hate, divisiveness, and prejudice, the very things its proponents purport to oppose.
Well, a new study found exactly that, and then some.
“Instructing Animosity: How DEI Pedagogy Produces the Hostile Attribution Bias,” released by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) and the Rutgers University Social Perception Lab on Monday, found that exposure to DEI trainings increased agreement with rhetoric from Adolf Hitler and had a greater desire to punish those they perceived as harboring prejudice, even when none existed.
That’s hardly a ringing endorsement for the DEI project.
The study examined the impact of DEI narratives on participants’ responses on three subjects – race, religion, and caste. The control group was exposed to a neutral essay about corn, while each other group was exposed to various DEI narratives pertaining to each of the subjects. Then, each grouping was presented with a hypothetical scenario and asked questions about their subject.
“Across all groupings, instead of reducing bias, [DEI materials] engendered a hostile attribution bias [ ], amplifying perceptions of prejudicial hostility where none was present, and punitive responses to the imaginary prejudice,” the study found. “These results highlight the complex and often counterproductive impacts of pedagogical elements and themes prevalent in mainstream DEI training.”
The results were particularly disturbing for participants exposed to DEI narratives about the Hindu caste system. DEI materials increased participants’ agreement with quotes from Adolf Hitler in which the word “Jew” was replaced with “Brahmin,” the highest caste.
“Participants exposed to the DEI content were markedly more likely to endorse Hitler’s demonization statements, agreeing that Brahmins are ‘parasites’ (+35.4%), ‘viruses’ (+33.8%), and ‘the devil personified’ (+27.1%),” the study found. “These findings suggest that exposure to anti-oppressive narratives can increase the endorsement of the type of demonization and scapegoating characteristic of authoritarianism.”
Participants exposed to DEI narratives about race read materials from Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, two “scholars” whose “work” is closer to a barely-coherent ideological pretext for racial discrimination and divisiveness. Shockingly, the study found that participants exposed to these materials were considerably more likely to find racial prejudice when none existed, and were more likely to support punishment of the “racist” actor.
But it seems that these damning findings may have been a little too over the target.
National Review reported that editors at both Bloomberg and The New York Times elected to kill stories about the study after reporters had previously agreed to cover it.
“Unfortunately, both publications jumped on the story enthusiastically only for it to be inexplicably pulled at the highest editorial levels,” a NCRI researcher told National Review. “This has never happened to the NCRI in its 5 year history.”
Bloomberg failed to provide an explanation, while some inside The New York Times had concerns the research was not peer reviewed.
“I told my editor I thought if we were going to write a story casting serious doubts on the efficacy of the work of two of the country’s most prominent DEI scholars, the case against them has to be as strong as possible,” a New York Times reporter wrote to the NCRI, per National Review.
It’s a shame these publications refused to run these stories so that this research could not reach a wider audience. The study highlights the dangers of DEI in the medical field and why it is absolutely imperative that healthcare professionals don’t simply turn a blind eye to these practices, but actively resist.
Engendering racial paranoia and encouraging physicians to find prejudice under every bed is a recipe for disaster. And in the medical field, where patients are trusting healthcare professionals with their lives, it is completely unacceptable to subject these doctors and nurses to propaganda that encourages authoritarian, prejudicial impulses.
