You’re Not Who I was Expecting: Mindset Determines Customer Responses to Employee Diversity

As companies increasingly value a diversified workforce by including more minority representatives in the workplace, it is imperative to understand customers’ responses to employee diversity. The present research explores how customer mindset (a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset) shapes their responses to employee diversity in terms of gender, nationality, and race/ethnicity. Across six studies, including two field studies, we found that customers with a growth mindset respond more favorably toward the minority employee compared to those with a fixed mindset, while customers with a fixed mindset respond more favorably toward the majority employee than the minority employee. Importantly, the positive effect of the growth (vs. fixed) mindset toward the minority employee can be explained by cognitive flexibility, while the negative effect of the fixed mindset toward the minority (vs. majority) employee is due to the naturalness bias in performance attribution (emphasizing talent rather than effort). Thus, by highlighting the natural talent of the minority employee, companies can attenuate the potential bias among customers with a fixed mindset toward the minority employee. Findings from this research contribute to a better understanding of customers’ responses to employee diversity, and also offer practical implications for marketers and policymakers.