Richard Eibach



Assistant Professor (Ph.D., 2003, Cornell) 

My primary area of research is social judgment. Specifically, I apply a socio-cognitive perspective to understand how people judge change in society and the self. My research has examined 1) a judgmental bias that leads people to mistake change in the self for change in the world, 2) white and black Americans' disagreements about progress toward equality, and 3) the effects of self-change on autobiographical memory. The first two projects are described below.

Mistaking change in the self for change in the world
People sometimes refer to "the good old days," long for "the way things used to be," and bemoan "they don't make things like they used to." Such comments imply societal decline. The ubiquity of perceived decline across cultures and generations suggests such changes may be illusory. I propose a psychological explanation of such illusory changes. Perception is fundamentally a constructive process influenced by both the self and the perceptual object. Thus, an ambiguity arises when perceptions change: should the change be attributed to change in oneself or the world? Facing this ambiguity, people are biased to attribute perceptual change to change in the world because 1) people generally underestimate self-change, and 2) people are naive realists who ignore their own contributions to perception.

Judging progress towards racial equality
White survey respondents report greater progress towards racial equality than black respondents report. This stems from differences in how the groups frame progress and differences in reference points. White respondents' progress judgments are inflated when they adopt a zero-sum view, believing that minority gains disadvantage white Americans. Assessments of progress also differ because different reference points are used; white respondents judge progress with respect to how things were whereas black respondents judge progress with respect to how things should be.

Other interests include fallacies in historical reasoning, individual/group nostalgia, the structure/properties of concepts of prejudice, and how "ignoring the self" leads social judgment astray.

Eibach, R.P., & Keegan, T. (2006). Free at last? Social dominance, loss aversion, and white and black Americans’ differing assessments of progress towards racial equality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 453-467.

Eibach, R.P., & Ehrlinger, J. (2006). “Keep your eyes on the prize”: Reference points and group differences in assessing progress towards equality. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 66-77.

Libby, L.K., Eibach, R.P., & Gilovich, T. (2005). Here’s looking at me: The effect of memory perspective on assessments of personal change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 50-62.

Eibach, R.P., Libby, L.K., & Gilovich, T.D. (2003). When change in the self is mistaken for change in the world. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84. 917-931

Libby, L.K., & Eibach, R.P. (2002). Looking back in time: Self-concept change and visual perspective in autobiographical memory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 167-179.