A new study has found that the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, meant to tackle discrimination and now commonplace at US colleges and corporations, could actually be inciting racial tension.

The report by Rutgers University’s Social Perception Lab and Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) found that certain DEI practices have led some participants to become irrationally confrontational.

Publsihed this week, the report states: “Across all groupings, instead of reducing bias, [DEI trainings] engendered a hostile attribution bias, amplifying perceptions of prejudicial hostility where none was present, and punitive responses to the imaginary prejudice“.

RT reports: According to researchers, this would manifest itself by participants demonizing those who oppose DEI initiatives as “oppressive, racist, or fascist” simply because they disagree.

“When people are supposed to see anti-racist material in the ideology, it looks like what happens is that they become more likely to punish for any evidence of wrongdoing,” study co-author and NCRI Chief Science Officer Joel Finkelstein told Fox News.

“That includes calling for dismissal… demanding public apologies… calling for relocation. These punitive measures are, in some cases, costing people their jobs,” Finkelstein added.

According to the report, DEI training and materials frequently rely on the words of controversial anti-racist authors Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo. The two authors have faced widespread criticism for their promotion of Critical Race Theory.

The researchers concluded that Kendi and DiAngelo’s works promote divisive “core themes.” They include: “Normal institutions and Western ideologies are secretly enforcing racist agendas and White people are beneficiaries and entitled to the benefits of systemic white supremacy and racism,” “Western countries are compromised by virtue of their racist ideology and past,” and “Anti-racist discrimination is the only solution to racist discrimination.”

The NCRI also found that anti-Islamophobia material that comes from a Muslim advocacy group may cause individuals to believe Muslim people are being treated unfairly even if there is no proof of that.

“DEI narratives that focus heavily on victimization and systemic oppression can foster unwarranted distrust and suspicions of institutions and alter subjective assessments of events,” the study says.