Question

Which of the following are benefits of diversity?
It often improves team performance.
It often improves a person's intellect.
It makes people better citizens.
It encourages relating to like-minded people

Answer 1

Short answers:
- It often improves team performance — Yes (benefit). Diverse teams bring varied perspectives and skills that can boost creativity, problem solving and decision quality — especially when the team is inclusive and psychologically safe.
- It often improves a person's intellect — Partly. Regular exposure to different viewpoints can broaden thinking, foster critical reasoning and learning, but it doesn’t automatically increase innate intelligence.
- It makes people better citizens — Yes (benefit). Contact with diverse people tends to reduce prejudice, increase empathy and civic-mindedness, and encourage tolerance and civic engagement.
- It encourages relating to like-minded people — No. Diversity does the opposite: it exposes people to those who are different rather than encouraging only like-minded interactions.

Bottom line: 1 and 3 are clear benefits; 2 can be a benefit in certain conditions; 4 is not.