Although much has been said about diversity in age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and disability status, experts now recognize that these demographic characteristics are just the tip of the iceberg. These characteristics mostly reflect surface-level diversity and can lead employees to make stereotypes. However, evidence has shown that people are less concerned about demographic differences if they see themselves as sharing more important characteristics, such as personality and values, that represent deep-level diversity.

We encounter differences between deep- and surface-level diversity in various contexts. Individual differences shape preferences for many aspects of behavior in organizations.