There has been a recent increase in training about microaggressions. The term was first coined by Harvard psychiatrist Chester Pierce in the 1960s. We experience a microaggression when we feel an aspect of our identity has been slighted. This is particularly apparent for stigmatised or marginalised identities.

These subtle slights have been shown to have a detrimental effect on people’s wellbeing. We wanted to explore the acceptability of this term in workplace training. This follows increased interest in ‘acceptability’ as a precursor to the success of interventions such as training and its transfer into practice. This is important as recent literature shows that resistance and backlash to diversity training are not uncommon.

Read more about microaggressions here.

We interviewed HR leaders from businesses across the UK, many of whom shared that they would prefer not to use the term 'microaggression' as it can be perceived as provocative or as technical language that could be off-putting to their employees. We then designed two versions of a short eLearning video. These were identical except that one used the term microaggression and the other used an alternative term: micromessage.  We recruited a representative sample of 600 working adults in the UK. Those who saw the micromessage version reported much lower anger and less sadness in response, as well as much more interest than those who experienced the microaggression version. 

These are just two exploratory studies, but they add to diversity literature on how terms can create resistance and backlash. The studies also align with Sekhon, Cartwright and Francis’ (2017) theoretical framework for acceptability, particularly the component of ‘ethicality’, the extent to which an intervention has a good fit with an individual’s value system. By paying attention to such components of acceptability, policymakers may make it more likely people will engage with communications and adopt training interventions that are designed to benefit employee wellbeing.

Three of our four papers were published as open access and can be found via the links below. The HR interview study mentioned above is not open access, but we have provided the link below too.

1. Microaggressions, Everyday Discrimination, Workplace Incivilities, and Other Subtle Slights at Work: A Meta-Synthesis
2. Microaggression Terminology in Communications on Twitter: A Corpus Linguistic Analysis
3. A Thorn by Any Other Name: The Acceptability of Terminology for Subtle Slights in UK Workplaces [paywall]
4. Microaggression or Micromessage? How Choice of Term Influences Working Adults' Emotional Reactions to a Training Module About Subtle Slights

Written by Dr Iain Smith, CPsychol

Iain’s bio

Iain leads the Solutions Team for MindGym, a behavioural science consultancy. His research was undertaken as part of his part-time PhD with Professor Amanda Griffiths, in the former Division of Applied Psychiatry and Psychology in the University of Nottingham’s School of Medicine. He is an Associate of the Institute of Mental Health.