Richard Eibach

BA (Cornell), PhD (Cornell)

Contact information

Research interests

My research focuses on social judgment, with an emphasis on the study of construal processes, naive realism, and egocentrism. More specifically I study judgmental biases that influence perceptions of social and personal change. I apply a constructivist perspective, investigating how psychological biases interact with dominant cultural frames to influence judgments of change. My research examines individual biases that cause people to perceive illusory patterns of societal decline, intergroup biases that polarize perceptions of progress towards racial and gender equality, and the phenomenological cues that influence the recognition of personal aging. I am also interested in social movement dynamics, the development of moral panics, and the relative success of competing ideologies. The theme of change links my interests in social judgment, autobiographical memory processes, intergroup conflict, political psychology, and life-course transitions.

Selected publications

• Eibach, R. P., & Libby, L. K. (in press). Ideology of the good old days: Exaggerated perceptions of moral decline and conservative politics. In, J. T. Jost, A. Kay, and H. Thorisdottir (Eds.), Social and psychological bases of ideology and system justification. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Libby, L. K., & Eibach, R. P. (in press). Seeing the links between the personal past, present, and future: How imagery perspective in mental simulation functions in defining the temporally extended self. In K. Markman & S. Klein (Eds.), The handbook of imagination and mental simulation. New York: Psychology Press.
• Purdie-Vaughns, V. J., & Eibach, R. P. (2008). Intersectional invisibility: The distinctive advantages and disadvantages of multiple subordinate-group identities. Sex Roles, 59, 377-391.
• Libby, L. K., Schaeffer, E. M., Eibach, R. P., & Slemmer, J. A. (2007). Picture yourself at the polls: Visual perspective in mental imagery affects self-perception and behavior. Psychological Science, 18, 199-203.
• Libby, L. K., & Eibach, R. P. (2007). How the self affects and reflects the content and subjective experience of autobiographical memory. In, C. Sedikides, and S. Spencer (Eds.), Frontiers of social psychology: The self, (pp. 75-91). New York: Psychology Press.
• 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.