New Professor Highlights Community and Context in Racism Research News Gerald Higginbotham has received a major federal grant to establish a community support network for early-career Black social and personality psychologists. Read our story about his first year on faculty and his research and engagement on tough subjects such as gun ownership, identity politics and racism.
Higginbotham in APA Article: Anti-Black racism linked to lower support for some gun rights News The American Psychological Assocation shares findings from post-doctoral scholar Gerald Higginbotham's research that racial resentment leads some to associate gun rights with white people.
When an Irresistible Prejudice Meets Immovable Politics: Black Legal Gun Ownership Undermines Racially Resentful White Americans’ Gun Rights Advocacy Research Historical evidence suggests that White Americans’ support for gun rights (i.e., opposition to gun control) is challenged by Black Americans exercising their legal rights to guns (e.g., The Black Panther Party and the Mulford Act of 1967). This study examined two empirical questions. In both studies, racially resentful White Americans expressed less support for a gun right (i.e., concealed-carry) when informed that Black (vs. White) Americans showed greater utilization of the gun right. Overall, these results support that Black legal gun ownership can reduce opposition to gun control among gun rights’ most entrenched advocates.