Does negative ethics divergence result in pops adopting my empire's ethics?

I have conquered a bunch of fanatical xenophobes, and they are causing me grief by participating in a homelander faction and demanding I return the planets to their original owner. I want to re-educate them to have the xenophile ethic like my empire. Will influencing them to have negative ethics divergence cause them to eventually adopt my ethics, or does ethics divergence not work that way?

Solution 1:

I took a look at the Wikipedia and based on my understanding it works like this:

Ethics divergence effects how likely the pop is going to follow the governing ethics. If a population has -20% Ethics Diversion (like the conformist trait) the more likely they are to switch the the governing ethics. A population with say +20% ethics divergence are more likely to adopt different ethics and start factions etc.

Today's @StellarisGame fact: Negative ethics divergence will make pops drift towards your empire ethos.

In your case, if you make their ethics divergence negative, it will increase the chances that they will adopt your ethics and vice versa if it is positive, they are more likely to adopt new ethics or maintain ones that are not your own. A good thing to note, if the stat is green it is usually better for you so look at the color of the percentage (if it has a color).

EDIT
Missed out some sources for evidence that the above is true. Wiki page doesn't actually say that negative ethics divergence increase chance of pops adopting ethics of governing bodies. Following links provide evidence by Project Lead, Martin Anward. I highly recommend checking out the twitter link, has loads of useful facts.
Martin Anward's twitter fact
Reddit Source