The “Threat Hypothesis,” Personality, and Attitudes toward Diversity

Multiple regression procedures were used to evaluate the contribution to attitudes toward diversity of three personality-related variables (authoritarianism, tolerance for ambiguity, and self-esteem) for which theory suggests that diversity may be seen as a threat (the “threat hypothesis”) and two dimensions of the five-factor model (FFM) (openness to experience and agreeableness). Participants included 238 undergraduate business students, of whom 47% were female and 36% non-white. For confirmatory purposes, a full path analysis model including attitudes toward diversity, the three threat variables, and all five of the FFM variables was fit to the data. The results of the hierarchical regressions suggest two of the threat traits (authoritarianism and tolerance for ambiguity), as well as the FFM trait of agreeableness, relate to attitudes toward diversity, whereas self-esteem and openness to experience do not. In general, the results of path analyses support the regression results, although significance levels tend to be lower for the path model than for the regression model. This study highlights the importance of agreeableness for jobs where attitudes toward others impact performance.