The Hidden Costs of Anti-Bias Education

Key points

Identity-based messaging can result in defensiveness and hostile attribution bias.

Messaging that divides people into groups can heighten tension instead of easing it.

Feeling blamed or judged often shuts people down rather than opening them up.

Approaches grounded in shared humanity promote openness over backlash.

For decades, institutions have poured billions into programs designed to fight racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, caste discrimination , and other forms of bias. The premise has been simple: if people better understand systemic injustice, they will become more empathetic and less prejudiced. But widely used materials are rarely subjected to scientific testing. The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI sought to understand the effects of the way we teach