It’s no secret that enthusiasm for DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programmes has waned in certain corners of the corporate world. Despite this, and although the jury is still out on diversity’s ultimate impact on a company’s financial performance, many still acknowledge that a diverse workforce yields important benefits.

Prior research suggests that exposure to counter-stereotypically successful minority employees – those who defy social stereotypes about their group’s ability to thrive in professional settings – weakens prejudice in the workplace. This also applies to members of stereotyped groups: Seeing women in leadership roles, for example, can reduce women’s own beliefs about gender stereotypes, while Black Americans may exhibit less racial self-stereotyping after exposure to successful Black Americans.

Counter-stereotypically successful minorities are generally viewed as having a positive impact on workplace perceptions, attitudes and behaviours. But in our research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, my co-authors (Daniela Goya-Tocchetto from University at Buffalo and Shai Davidai) and I point to a potential drawback: The presence of such individuals can lead others to believe that an organisation is more diverse than it actually is, and so reduce their support for future diversity-enhancing policies.

Standing out from the crowd

According to the stereotype content model, women and racial minorities are often perceived as less competent than other social groups, and therefore less likely to achieve professional success. As a result, when individuals from these groups do succeed – for instance, by earning high salaries or holding senior leadership positions – they tend to stand out as particularly salient.

This matters because people often rely on salience as a shortcut for judging prevalence, a process known as attribution substitution. A classic example is how the vividness of shark attacks leads people to believe they happen quite frequently. In reality, you’re more likely to be the victim of a lightning strike or fireworks.

Because counter-stereotypically successful women and racial minorities tend to be highly visible in corporate settings, we hypothesised that their mere presence would inflate perceptions of organisational diversity. We further predicted that this effect would be weaker for individuals from minority groups stereotyped as highly competent (e.g. Asian Americans, which are considered a model minority in the United States). Finally, we expected inflated diversity perceptions to be associated with lower support for initiatives aimed at improving workplace diversity.

Perception vs. reality

We tested these ideas across four studies. The first examined whether firms led by women CEOs were perceived as more gender diverse. We found that participants consistently overestimated the gender diversity of a firm’s board of directors when the CEO was a woman – an effect that didn’t appear when the CEO was a man.

In our second study, conducted with US residents, we compared reactions to firms with either counter-stereotypically successful Black American employees or equally successful but non-counter-stereotypical Asian American employees. Although participants overestimated the share of non-White workers in both conditions, exposure to Black American employees led to significantly higher estimates of racial diversity. This suggests that the effect of being exposed to high-performing minorities on diversity perceptions is stronger when that success contradicts prevailing stereotypes.

Our third and fourth studies investigated the downstream consequences of inflated diversity perceptions. In the third study, participants reviewed information about the gender composition of each quartile of a company’s pay distribution, then estimated the organisation’s overall gender composition. Participants overestimated the true level of gender diversity when women were more heavily represented in the top salary quartile. What's more, we discovered early evidence that exposure to counter-stereotypically successful women was associated with larger gender pay gaps within the firm.

In the fourth study, participants were significantly more likely to overestimate the proportion of women employees in an organisation when the latter were successful (i.e. described as earning high salaries). This, in turn, reduced participants’ willingness to hire a woman for an open role.

The impact of inflated diversity perceptions

Perceptions of diversity shape a wide range of outcomes, including support for policies aimed at increasing representation. Our findings suggest that organisations with counter-stereotypically successful women or racial minorities can be perceived as more diverse than they truly are. This can foster an unrealistically rosy view of diversity that may not only discourage organisations from addressing deeper, systemic workforce issues, but could also reduce support for initiatives such as hiring additional members of underrepresented groups.

The implication is clear: Without careful attention, firms may inadvertently distort perceptions of diversity and undermine support for the very individuals they aim to advance. Our results also show that “quick fix” diversity strategies, like hiring a few counter-stereotypically high-performing minority employees, can undermine motivation to invest in longer-term solutions.

How can organisations that are committed to building a genuinely diverse workforce navigate these risks? Prior research suggests that providing complete, accurate statistics on gender and racial pay gaps and overall representation can help offset the distortions created by counter-stereotypical exemplars and better align perceptions with reality. This is especially important at key decision-making points, such as when firms are considering new diversity policies or hiring practices, given that inflated diversity perceptions can undermine support for such initiatives.

At the same time, leaders should be mindful that some well-intentioned efforts may backfire. For instance, excessive or highly performative messaging around diversity – be it via the company’s website or social media accounts – may cause fatigue or scepticism, ultimately reducing engagement rather than building it.

Success is the solution, not the problem

Crucially, the solution isn’t for outstanding minority professionals to downplay their achievements or feel responsible for the unintended consequences of their success. Rather, part of the problem has to do with scarcity. Despite progress, underrepresentation persists: Black employees hold only 8 percent of top executive roles in the most valuable US public corporations, and women account for just 11 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs. 

As long as women and racial minorities remain underrepresented in the upper ranks of organisations, their success will continue to stand out. But as more of these individuals move into senior roles, their presence is likely to become normalised and feel less exceptional. Stereotypes about their competence should weaken, reducing the risk that a few high-profile success stories distort diversity perceptions.

In that sense, while our findings highlight an important bias, they also point to a hopeful possibility: As diversity in leadership gets more common, it may also become less remarkable – laying the groundwork for broader acceptance and more equitable, inclusive organisations.