The Diversity Heuristic: How Team Demographic Composition Influences Judgments of Team Creativity.

This article investigates the lay belief that demographic diversity—specifically differences in race and gender—increases team creativity and how this belief influences observers' judgments of teams and their creative output. Across eight preregistered studies involving over 5,500 participants, the research finds that observers consistently judge demographically diverse teams as more creative than homogeneous teams, including when evaluating identical products attributed to different team compositions. The studies identify perceived cognitive diversity—the assumption that demographic differences signal differences in perspectives and knowledge—as a key mechanism driving these judgments. Additionally, the research reveals a curvilinear relationship between the proportion of racial minorities or women in a group and perceived creativity, and shows that evaluators prefer to add diverse members to teams when tasks require creativity. These findings highlight how popular beliefs about diversity and creativity may shape organizational decisions, potentially affecting which teams and ideas receive recognition, while also raising considerations about stereotyping and the accuracy of creativity assessments.