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If you haven’t noticed, Congress doesn’t represent a cross-section of America. Its members comprise a narrow sector of the nation, and that’s a problem for reasons I’ll discuss in a minute. First, let’s look at the numbers.

Non-Hispanic whites make up 61 percent of our population, but 80 percent of representatives and senators are white. People 60 years old or older make up just 20 percent of the population but the average age of a representative is 57; for a senator it’s 61. The average age of Republican committee chairs in the House is 59. Ranking House Democrats average 68. Eighteen of the 33 senators up for re-election this fall are over 65 years old.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, the committee that vets judicial candidates, is comprised of 16 white males, whose average age is 64. Only four females and one black male are on the committee.

Should we be concerned? Only if better decision-making matters to you.

Studies show that diversity tends to improve workplace performance. Though people generally prefer to spend time with others who are similar to them, a homogenous workplace does not always produce the best results.

Katherine Phillips, professor at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, explains that diversity “often comes with more cognitive processing and more exchange of information and more perceptions of conflict.”

Phillips touts diversity because it allows new ideas to emerge and people to learn from one another.

A simple experiment Phillips conducted in 2010 with professors from Brigham Young University and Stanford University illustrates the point. Phillips assembled 50 same-gender three-person groups comprised of fraternity and sorority members. Before being assigned to a group, each participant was asked to read a series of interviews conducted by a detective investigating a murder and tasked with deciding the most likely suspect.

A 20-minute time limit was set for reaching a conclusion, but five minutes into the process, a newcomer, either from the same fraternity or sorority or from a different fraternity or sorority, joined the group and engaged in the deliberation.

Not surprising, the original three-person groups felt more comfortable with a newcomer who belonged to their same fraternity or sorority, but  the groups with newcomers from a different fraternity or sorority arrived at the correct answer far more frequently than the homogenous groups

Even more interesting is that, while the homogenous groups did not perform as well, they were more confident about their decisions than the better performing diverse groups.

An eight-year study of a large global company by Sara F. Ellison of MIT and Wallace P. Mullin of George Washington University, published in 2014, produced similar results. Employees were found to be more cooperative in homogenous units but seemed to be less productive. While gender diversity, on the other hand, can have a detrimental effect on cooperation and trust, this consequence is outweighed by the improved office performance, including revenue gain, that comes with diversity.

McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting firm, examined financial data from 2010 to 2013 for 366 companies in the U.S, the United Kingdom, Canada and Latin America. The findings?

Greater gender and ethnic diversity translate into more profit.

Why is this? Companies committed to diversity have access to a larger talent pool, and a commitment to diversity more closely aligns companies to the more diverse customer bases they serve. Diversity fosters positive attitudes and behaviors in the workplace, and a diverse team of thinkers is inclined to challenge one another and be more willing to explore new ideas.

There are myriad reasons why Congress is dysfunctional. The system is captive to party politics, lobbyists and money, and gerrymandering guarantees reelection for many members. The limited pool from which Congress draws its ranks adds to the problem.

There’s nothing wrong with old white men. I’m one myself. But when it’s largely old white men calling the shots, the chances decrease for new perspectives, ideas and change.

[This post was published in The Columbus Dispatch on November 4, 2018.]

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Jack D’Aurora writes for Considerthisbyjd.com

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Also published on Medium.