I recently partnered with Aimpoint Research to investigate how mindsets might differ across different demographic profiles, including political affiliation, income level, gender, education level, generation, geographic region (in the United States).
I am finding the results quite interesting. I am in the middle of several articles, I will be sharing related to this research. Here are the other articles that I have compiled so far:
- Mindsets and Political Affiliation
- Mindset Differences across U.S. Geographic Regions
- Mindset Differences across Generations
This week, I’m covering how mindsets differ by ethnicity in the United States. I had the sample sizes to look across Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic, and White/Caucasian ethnicities.
Research Information
Our sample was designed to be a decently close representation of the United States population at large. We ended with a sample of 587.
What I am presenting to you is the average mindset scores across different ethnicities. I was able to find unique differences across these ethnicities. To me, these differences are interesting, somewhat meaningful, but they ARE NOT technically statistically significant.
What this means is that we can infer that while one group (e.g., Asian) may have a more positive mindset than another group (e.g., Hispanic), we will surely find some people who identify as Hispanic that have more positive mindsets than other people who identify as Asian.
Regardless, it is interesting to see the differences.
Mindset Differences by Ethnicity
Here are the results:
Key Findings:
- Fixed to Growth Mindsets. Those who identify as White/Caucasian have, by far, the most fixed mindsets. This means that collectively, they are more focused on looking good and avoiding failure, while the other ethnicities are comparatively more focused on learning and growing.
- Closed to Open Mindsets. Those who identify as Asian and Black/African American are substantially more open-minded than those who identify as Hispanic or White/Caucasian. This means that those who identify as Asian and Black/African American are more focused on finding truth and thinking optimally, and less focused on being right than those who identify as Hispanic or White/Caucasian.
- Prevention to Promotion Mindsets. Those who identify as Black/African American are the most promotion-minded. This means that they are more focused on reaching goals than avoiding problems compared to the other ethnicities. On the low side, those who identify as White/Caucasian are the most prevention-minded. This means that they are more focused on avoiding problems (as opposed to being focused on reaching goals) than the other ethnicities.
- Inward to Outward Mindsets. Those who identify as Black/African American have the most inward mindsets. This means that they are more inclined to see others more as objects than as people. This implications of this finding should not be lost on us. I imagine it is a product of past wrongs and injustices. And, I believe it should be seen as a signal that greater healing needs to occur in our collective national culture. And, based upon the results, perhaps Whites/Caucasians have the mindsets best suited to lead out in this effort.
While these are very interesting findings, they are also generalities. These results DO NOT suggest, for example, that all Blacks/African Americans are inward-minded and that all Whites/Caucasians are fixed-minded.
If you want to take the mindset assessment for yourself, you can take it here: FREE Personal Mindset Assessment
