This looks like good news for workplaces and schools everywhere:
According to a study, that scourge of political correctness that people (OK,
white men) complain will eventually ruin everything good and innovative in the
world might actually have the opposite effect. It helps promote creativity.
Washington University in St. Louis Professor Michelle Duguid
spoke to NPR's All Things Considered about the study she conducted, which
confirms what your HR department probably already knows. She arranged students
in groups of three (some same gender and some mixed gender) to brainstorm ideas
about what to do with a vacant space on campus. The control groups got right to
work, while the other subjects were first asked, "As a group, please
list examples of political correctness that you have either heard of or
directly experienced on this campus."
After 10 minutes of listing these PC
examples, the groups that were mixed gender came up with more
innovative ideas than their non-example listing control-group counterparts.
What's the upshot of all this? "Men
are uncertain about what may be seen maybe as sexist or inappropriate,"
Duguid said. "And women, they're uncertain about, you know, 'Can I speak
up, because will my ideas be valued?' But in both cases, by reducing this
uncertainty, people were much more open — both men and women — to share more
ideas and more novel ideas; ideas that were kind of out-of-the-box that would
be associated with uncertainty."
Anyone who's worked or studied in a place where
sexist, racist or homophobic jokes were acceptable would likely attest to this
already. But it's certainly good to have scientific backing next time some bro
complains his creativity is stiffled.