Celebrating organizational history triggers social identity threat among Black Americans.

ABSTRACT: Many mainstream organizations celebrate their historical successes. In their history, however, they often marginalized racial minorities, women, and other underrepresented groups. We suggest that when organizations celebrate their histories, even without mentioning historical marginalization, they can undermine belonging and intentions to join the organization among historically marginalized groups. Four experiments demonstrate that Black participants who were exposed to an organization that celebrated their history versus the present showed reduced belonging and intentions to participate in the organization. These effects were mediated by expectations of biased treatment in the organization. Further, when organizations had a history of Black people in power, celebrating history was no lon

SUBMITTER: Wallace LE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11032450 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature