Has Public Support for DEI Really Changed?
Spoiler alert: The answer is more nuanced than you might think.
This is the first in a series of newsletters that explore diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within companies in the United States.
When I started writing these newsletters, I promised to avoid political topics whenever possible. However, I also acknowledged that it is sometimes unavoidable because politics and business are often closely intertwined. I also promised to keep my analysis as nonpartisan as possible. That said, I have to admit that I disagree with the DEI-related policies currently being enacted by the Trump administration. Over the next few weeks, I plan to show why I believe DEI is good for business.
One of the reasons I wanted to explore this topic is that it seems odd to me that some well-known companies have retreated from their DEI initiatives so quickly, even with the political pressures they face from the Trump administration and anti-DEI advocates.
That led me to wonder whether these companies are scaling back or eliminating DEI initiatives because they believe the public no longer supports them. However, I think it would be strange for people to suddenly change their views on DEI just because the government is now discouraging it.
So, that is what I set out to investigate this week.
As I suspected, the recent retreat from DEI does not appear to be driven by a significant shift in public opinion. While research shows a slight decline, many Americans continue to support workplace DEI initiatives.
This suggests that business leaders might be scaling back or eliminating DEI programs due to political pressure, a perceived lack of ROI, or some other reason I have not thought of.
That said, public opinion might still have played a role in some of these decisions. It is possible that some business leaders overestimated the level of support for the views expressed by vocal anti-DEI activists, or to put it another way, they underestimated the overall public support for workplace DEI.
Interestingly, several studies conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison offer evidence to support that this is a possible explanation as to what led some business leaders to make changes to their company’s DEI programs.
For communications professionals and business leaders, I think this research is particularly valuable.
In a world where everyone is competing for attention and algorithms often prioritize the loudest or most extreme voices, their work can also help all of us become better, more informed consumers of information.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the situation.
First, we should establish a definition of DEI.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Defined
An NPR episode of Fresh Air provides an excellent discussion of DEI featuring insights from Dr. Frank Dobbin, professor of sociology at Harvard University, and Dr. Ella F. Washington, an organizational psychologist and professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. (Note: The transcript of the episode of Fresh Air was published on the NPR website on March 5, 2025.)
When asked how they define DEI, Dr. Washington stated, “Well, diversity, equity and inclusion is the terminology that we use at the current date, and it should be noted that this terminology has gone through evolutions over the past six decades. At the core, what we’re talking about with this work is creating workplace environments and systems in our society where everyone has the opportunity to succeed and everyone has the opportunity to thrive. That is the core of diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Dr. Dobbin adds to the definition by stating, “I would say, in simple terms, DEI comes out of legislation trying to assure equality of opportunity that is having the same chances in the labor market by race, ethnicity, creed, starting in 1961, and then by gender as well, starting in 1964.”
Recent DEI Trends
As Maria Aspan points out in another article on the NPR website, the number of employees working in DEI roles peaked in 2023. (Note: This NPR article was published on May 27, 2025.)
DEI programs had been gaining popularity prior to 2020. Then, after the murder of George Floyd and the acknowledgment of systemic racism, many companies recognized the need to help level the playing field for all employees, resulting in promises and DEI initiatives designed to address these problems.
“However superficial some of these promises turned out to be, big companies spent a lot of money on them — and hired thousands to implement them,” Aspan writes in the NPR article. “By early 2023, U.S. companies employed more than 20,000 people focused on DEI. That was more than double the number of such jobs five years earlier, according to Revelio Labs’ analysis of 8.8 million employers.”
Aspan also points out that the popularity of DEI programs began to decline in 2023. This reversal gained increased attention after the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump in January of this year.
In the Fresh Air episode mentioned earlier, Dr. Washington states, “When contending with legal ramifications, you know, institutions have to be very calculated. There are very real downstream consequences of ignoring federal mandates, especially if you’re an institution that receives federal contracts and the like. Yet for those in the private sector, where there has not been legal mandates just yet, you know, we see companies dismantling these DEI efforts. And they are sending a clear message that inclusion and diversity and equity are only a priority when it’s easy, when it’s popular, as we saw in 2020.”
It is worth noting that the DEI landscape is constantly evolving, with DEI programs under increased scrutiny and legal battles focusing on accusations of reverse discrimination becoming more common. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of a straight woman who claimed she was passed over for promotions in favor of others based on her sexual orientation. The Supreme Court ruling allows her case to move forward. It is now back in the hands of the lower courts. As a Newsweek article points out, this case will likely inspire others to file similar reverse discrimination lawsuits. (Note: The Newsweek article was published on June 5, 2025.)
So, we know the DEI landscape is changing.
This leads to the question of whether consumers approve of DEI programs or prefer to see them eliminated.
How Popular Are DEI Programs?
In an Inc. article, Jessica Stillman notes that many executives are eliminating DEI at their companies to avoid the ire of the Trump administration and reduce the risk of legal battles brought on by anti-DEI activists. (Note: The Inc. article was published on March 12, 2025.)
Stillman also raises the question of whether business leaders believed support for DEI had declined among American consumers. If so, they might feel justified in scaling back these programs.
But what does the research tell us?
As ChatGPT helped uncover, several studies suggest that DEI remained popular going into last year’s election.
A Marist poll conducted in January and February 2024 found that just over eight in 10 Americans believed diversity in America makes the country stronger. About two-thirds (66 percent) supported corporations requiring employees to participate in DEI training. (Note: The post summarizing the study was published on the Marist Poll website on February 13, 2024.)
According to an Inc. article, a 2024 poll conducted by The Washington Post and Ipsos found that about 60 percent of Americans said DEI programs were “a good thing.” Support rose to nearly 70 percent when respondents were told that DEI programs were “programs to hire more employees from groups that are underrepresented in their workforce, such as racial and ethnic minorities and people with disabilities and to promote equity in the workplace.” (Note: The Inc. article was published on June 18, 2024.)
A YouGov poll conducted in January 2025 found that 51 percent of U.S. adult citizens had a favorable opinion of DEI programs, compared with 34 percent who held an unfavorable opinion. The remaining 15 percent answered “Don’t know.” As expected, DEI programs were much more popular among Democrats than they were among Republicans. In fact, 85 percent of Democrats said they had a favorable opinion of DEI programs, compared to just 24 percent of Republicans. (Note: The YouGov post was published on February 14, 2025.)
According to a blog post on the London School of Economics and Political Science website, a recent University of Massachusetts Amherst poll asked respondents whether people in certain professions, including teachers, police officers, medical professionals, members of the military, and public and private employees, should receive DEI training at work. In January 2024, about seven in 10 Americans supported having people in these jobs receive DEI training. By April 2025, this number decreased to about six in 10. (Note: The post on the London School of Economics and Political Science website that summarized this research was published on June 4, 2025.)
I want to point out that although support for DEI programs was lowest in the 2025 YouGov poll, even in that survey, only about a third of respondents held unfavorable opinions of DEI programs. By simple arithmetic, the opposition to DEI programs couldn’t have exceeded 40 percent in the other polls mentioned.
Keep in mind that this represents only a sample of the research available.
I also uncovered research from NBC News, conducted in March 2025, that showed 48 percent of registered voters said workplace DEI programs should continue, compared to 49 percent who said workplace DEI should be eliminated. (The article summarizing this research was published on the NBC News website on March 18, 2025.)
However, the NBC News research was based on registered voters, not all U.S. adult citizens. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 74 percent of voting-age U.S. citizens were registered to vote in 2024. That means roughly one-quarter of U.S. adult citizens might have been excluded from the NBC News research. As a result, it is not possible to directly compare this poll to the other studies mentioned. I also believe it does not accurately estimate support for DEI among all U.S. adults. (The U.S. Census Bureau press release featuring the estimate of registered voters was published on April 30, 2025.)
Business Leaders Might Be Underestimating Support for DEI Programs
This brings us to the results of several studies conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The findings were summarized in an article in Scientific Reports in November and highlighted in Jessica Stillman’s Inc. article mentioned earlier. These studies suggest that the perception that there is a low level of support for DEI is extremely important. (Note: The Scientific Reports article was published on November 19, 2024. The research that the article was based on was conducted between 2021 and 2023.)
In their research, Dr. Naomi Isenberg and Dr. Markus Brauer surveyed Americans to measure their agreement levels with statements about diversity and inclusion. They then asked respondents to estimate the percentage of their fellow Americans who would agree with these statements as well. The researchers found that respondents underestimated the actual levels of support for diversity and inclusion among their fellow Americans. However, this effect was less noticeable when Trump voters were asked to estimate support for diversity and inclusion among their fellow Trump voters. See the Scientific Reports article for additional details.
As the researchers explain in the Scientific Reports article, situations where perceived support for an issue differs from actual support are examples of a social psychological phenomenon known as “pluralistic ignorance.”
The researchers identify several factors that might contribute to this phenomenon.
For example, Dr. Isenberg and Dr. Brauer note, “When a subgroup of individuals endorses a position that is not widely shared but communicates about it intensely, then this position appears more popular than it actually is.”
This helps explain why the vocal presence of anti-DEI activists might lead business leaders to underestimate support for DEI programs among the general public.
Pluralistic Ignorance Can Affect Behavior
In the Scientific Reports article, Dr. Isenberg and Dr. Brauer write, “Pluralistic ignorance has important consequences: Pluralistically ignorant individuals are less motivated to behave inclusively or to speak up when they witness discrimination. They also have fewer conversations about diversity, consistent with the “spiral of silence” phenomenon where people become increasingly ignorant because they rarely hear others’ opinions and thus fail to update their incorrect beliefs about others.”
The researchers also conducted follow-up studies designed to reduce pluralistic ignorance by exposing participants to national opinion research that showed the actual levels of support for diversity and inclusion.
“When people learn about the widespread support for diversity and inclusion, they change their own attitudes about these issues,” Dr. Isenberg and Dr. Brauer write. “After being exposed to actual survey data from national opinion polls, our participants scored higher on a variety of indicators related to diversity and inclusion. In other words, correcting people’s pluralistic ignorance has important beneficial effects.”
Notably, the researchers found that after learning about the actual level of public support for diversity and inclusion, participants in the study “valued diversity in the workplace more and reported increased intentions to confront discrimination.”
Topics for Future Discussion
As I usually mention, I didn’t include everything I uncovered during my research for this week’s newsletter. If you have time, I encourage you to read the publications that I cited.
For example, the NPR Fresh Air episode highlighted in this newsletter includes an excellent discussion about the recent scaling back and elimination of DEI programs. I plan to continue exploring that topic in a future newsletter.
I also highly recommend reading the Scientific Reports article that was written by Dr. Isenberg and Dr. Brauer. Their research on pluralistic ignorance provides valuable insights that communications professionals and business leaders should consider when making decisions about DEI initiatives.
Furthermore, I believe the concept of pluralistic ignorance can be applied to other business topics. In particular, understanding pluralistic ignorance could be useful when examining misinformation and disinformation.
Knowing about pluralistic ignorance can also help all of us become more informed consumers of information.
Additionally, in her article that features the research conducted by Dr. Isenberg and Dr. Brauer, Jessica Stillman points out that businesses help shape public opinion and, therefore, need to make sure they are sending the right message to their customers and the general public. This is a topic that I might examine in future newsletters.
Finally, I want to thank Dr. Isenberg for taking the time to respond to a few questions that I had about their research. In a LinkedIn message, she noted that their study specifically focused on diversity and inclusion. They did not use the term “DEI” in the questions they asked their research participants.
This distinction is important. In survey research, the wording of the questions can significantly influence how people respond. This is especially relevant in this case, as each respondent might interpret the term “DEI” in different ways. This was apparent in the Washington Post & Ipsos research cited earlier. Again, they found that the results changed when respondents were given a formal definition of DEI.
Final Thoughts
This week’s newsletter covered several important topics.
I began by sharing the formal definitions of DEI that were provided by two subject matter experts.
I then highlighted that while DEI gained momentum in 2020, several well-known companies have recently scaled back or eliminated their DEI programs.
Next, I examined the current levels of public support for workplace DEI.
Finally, I introduced studies conducted by researchers at UW-Madison that examined the concept of pluralistic ignorance.
As I mentioned earlier, I chose to explore this topic because, despite the backlash from anti-DEI activists, it didn’t seem likely that public support for DEI would shift so dramatically in such a short time. After completing the research for this newsletter, it is clear that public support for DEI might not have changed as much as some people want us to believe.
In fact, some business leaders might have underestimated the level of support for DEI. This could be one of several factors contributing to the scaling back or elimination of workplace DEI programs.
In the end, while opinions might change in the future, I want people who read this newsletter to understand that many Americans still support workplace DEI.
In the next few newsletters, I will continue this conversation by providing another look at DEI trends and explaining why DEI initiatives are not just values-driven priorities. They are also good for business.
Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter. I hope you continue to join me on this journey.
See you next week.
Best regards,
Chad Thiele, M.S.
Quote of the Week
“DEI stands at the crossroads of history—again. It’s a tribute to its enduring nature and the tenacity of those who’ve believed in it. As DEI encounters new challenges, it continues to resist the old. So, let me be clear: DEI has not disappeared; it is transforming, and those of us committed to this work can retool our strategies to keep pace.” ~ Dr. Ella F. Washington
Note: I used AI to help refine this newsletter. I wrote the first draft and then improved it using ChatGPT and Grammarly.