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Jens Heycke's avatar

Thank you for this article. Earlier this year, I analyzed the "landmark" Herrick and McKinsey studies, which allegedly established that diversity made businesses more profitable. The Herrick study alone had over 1800 academic citations.

https://jensheycke.substack.com/p/dei-studies-that-prove-nothing

It was complete garbage: due to an amateur-hour coding error, companies for which sales were unknown were coded as $88,888,888,888! And that was just the beginning. Yet it was widely praised and cited for nearly a decade -- until some more conscientious researchers exposed its flaws.

When researchers believe so strongly in a particular cause and wish for a particular outcome so much, objective studies are elusive.

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