What Decolonization Demands
It’s tempting to think that all of our aims pull us in the same direction. If we operate from consistent principles, it can feel like we should never have two goals fighting for space. For those trying to make the research and application of behavioral science more just, we tend to treat diminishing racism and implicit bias, eliminating gender-based discrimination, and fighting against colonialism as related terms, so fundamentally aligned that we often lump them under one heading: DEI.
But, as Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang remind us, decolonization is not a metaphor.1 Decolonial approaches aim to restore land and power to Indigenous peoples, and this may be to the detriment of other minorities in societies where Indigenous people have been systematically dispossessed. Decolonization is not a synonym for DEI, and researchers cannot treat the terms as interchangeable.
My point is not that we shouldn’t use the concept of decolonization to talk about behavioral science. We should use it more. However, as researchers in the field begin to take decolonial approaches, they should be aware of the specific demands that decolonization makes, and how it can come into conflict with other just and necessary aims. For example, a program that uses new cognitive tools to help executives avoid offensive speech can be part of a laudable social justice program. But, considering that it helps those executives to lead better without ceding power to Indigenous people, it is not a decolonial project.
Behavioral science could be a powerful tool in the fight against the legacy of colonialism. It aims to understand how unseen biases and ingrained heuristics affect our decision-making, and discover how to counteract them. As such, it’s precisely positioned to help us solve the most deeply-rooted problems in our culture. We just have to use it the right way.
References
- Eve Tuck, & K. Wayne Yang. (2021). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Tabula Rasa, 38, 61–111. https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n38.04
- Fanon, F., Sartre, J.-P., Bhabha, H. K., & West, C. (2004). The wretched of the earth (; R. Philcox, Trans.; 60th anniversary edition). Grove Press.
- Nkrumah, K. (1968). Neo-colonialism: the last stage of imperialism. Heinemann Educational.
- Freire, P., Macedo, D. P., & Shor, I. (2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed (; M. B. Ramos, Trans.; 50th anniversary edition). Bloomsbury Academic.
- Wallerstein, I. M. (1983). Historical capitalism. Verso.
- Call for Papers | A User’s Guide to Decolonising Behavioural Science. (2024, October 10). UWI St. Augustine Campus News. https://sta.uwi.edu/news/notices/notice.asp?id=26914
- Kemp, C. G., White, L., Haroz, E. E., & Warne, D. (2026). Towards a decolonising implementation science: principles from Indigenous leadership. The Lancet. Global Health, 14(2), e296–e301. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(25)00469-3
About the Author
Zakir Jamal
Zakir Jamal is a writer and researcher based in Montreal. He holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of Chicago and is completing his MA in English Literature at McGill. He is currently working on a novel about how we understand chance. In his spare time, he enjoys photography and cross-country skiing.
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