Political correctness sparks innovation

The argument

The claim inverts the usual objection. Political correctness is normally described as a constraint on speech, and therefore as something that makes people more guarded. Proponents argue that the opposite is true, and point to research finding that in environments with a clear culture of political correctness people feel more at ease and more able to say what they think. The mechanism proposed is clarity rather than permission. In a setting with no shared norms about what is acceptable, nobody knows where the line falls, so everyone proceeds cautiously, testing the water and keeping the more unusual thought to themselves in case it lands badly. The uncertainty is itself the inhibitor. Where the norms are explicit, that uncertainty disappears: a speaker knows what will give offence and can avoid it without having to guess, and having avoided it, can say the rest freely. The constraint is narrow and known, and everything outside it is open. Both sides of an exchange benefit from this, which is the part the standard objection misses. A person who fears being hurt by what others say is no freer than a person who fears hurting them, and in a group where some members are bracing for insult, those members are not contributing their best thinking either. Clear boundaries remove both fears at once and put everyone in the conversation on the same footing. Innovation follows from that, on this account, because new ideas come disproportionately from people willing to voice half-formed, unconventional or uncomfortable thoughts, and willingness of that kind depends on confidence that the room is safe to speak in. A group whose members are all guessing at the rules produces cautious, conventional output; a group that knows the rules produces more ideas and more varied ones. Political correctness, on this reading, is not a limit on expression but a condition for it, and a society is more creative with it than without.

Context

Research indicates that working in a politically correct environment boosts creativity and innovation. A study carried out at Washington University in St. Louis involved asking groups of college students to come up with business ideas for a new restaurant to be opened on their campus. Some of the groups were given no prior tasks and told to get straight to it. Others spent some time reflecting on instances of political correctness they had recently witnessed or heard about, thus bringing political correctness to the forefront of their minds. The study concluded that in diverse groups of both men and women, those that were first exposed to PC culture came up with more restaurant ideas. The ideas that they came up with were also more novel.

Premises

Counter-arguments

This is just one study. The author admits herself that there has been a dearth of studies examining the effects of political correctness on group behaviour. Also, this study only examines political correctness in the workplace. That is only one aspect of political correctness. Most critics of political correctness do not argue that PC culture is detrimental to the workplace, they argue that is detrimental to free speech and the marketplace of ideas. This study does not disprove that PC culture has a negative impact on freedom of speech in the public sphere, only that in the very specific context of a meeting in a professional environment it MAY contribute to creativity and innovation.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] There is not enough evidence to say this with certainty.