Better Decisions
In The Diversity Principle, you examine the idea that mixed groups of people are more successful at thinking and acting than homogenous groups. Why was this an important book for you to write?
The book is important for two reasons. First, the diversity principle upends the idea of racial and gender supremacy and replaces it with the knowledge that when we bring all kinds of people together, we make things better for everyone. Second, the diversity principle is under attack from those who want to maintain the status quo or reverse the gains of women and minorities, making this a critical time to explore its historical roots and the contemporary empirical studies that demonstrate that it is scientifically valid.
If you had to condense “the diversity principle” into one sentence for a skeptical reader, what would it be?
After two hundred years of the spread of the diversity principle in universities and free speech law, the scientific evidence now establishes that when you bring together people with different backgrounds and experiences, including people of different ages, religions, ethnicities, races, genders, and other forms of personal identity, they make better decisions.
Are you hopeful or pessimistic about the future of diversity as a constitutional value?
I am hopeful because even though it threatens the status quo, it is such an important principle that in time, people who fail to accept it and implement it will fall behind because they are losing the benefits that diversity offers.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from The Diversity Principle?
We are all better off when we open our circles of community to outsiders and expand our lives to include people of diverse backgrounds and experiences.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | LinkedIn | Instagram | Amazon
The diversity principle—the idea that people with different backgrounds, experiences, identities, and viewpoints produce better work by engaging with one another—was a core tenet of the first modern research university, founded in Germany in 1810. It was the inspiration for John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, a touchstone of academic freedom; a hallmark of Charles Eliot’s remaking of Harvard in the late nineteenth century to promote the “clash of ideas�; and a foundation of the twentieth century efforts toward equality of Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Pauli Murray. In telling the story of the diversity principle through the experiences of these and other remarkable thinkers, Oppenheimer argues for affirming diversity as a central value of education and an essential ingredient for a robust intellectual and political culture.
Posted on March 11, 2026, in Interviews and tagged author, Yale Law Library Series in Legal History and Reference, book, book recommendations, book review, book reviews, book shelf, bookblogger, books, books to read, David B. Oppenheimer, ebook, goodreads, Government Social Policy, indie author, kindle, kobo, literature, nonfiction, nook, novel, Philosophy & Social Aspects of Education, read, reader, reading, Social Policy, story, The Diversity Principle, writer, writing. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.
Leave a comment
Comments 0