Literature Review and Analysis Documenting the Impact of Scientific Workforce Diversity on the Scientific Enterprise and the Public Good

Research consistently shows that groups composed of cognitively diverse individuals develop more effective approaches in solving complex problems, and generate more creative and innovative ideas relative to groups that are not cognitively diverse (Hoffman & Maier, 1961; Hong & Page, 2004; Page, 2007; Johnson, 2008). The concept of cognitive diversity is defined as the degree to which group members differ in terms of experiences, interpretations, perspectives, and problem solving mechanisms (Horwitz & Horwitz, 2007). Johnson (2008) explained that because cognitively diverse groups supply teams with a variety of cognitive attributes, they derive solutions that are more creative and generally superior relative to solutions developed by groups of experts that are cognitively similar in nature. In fact, as the complexity of problems increased, the diverse collectives performed better and were more resilient in attitude to change, relative to cognitively similar collectives.