About

Eugene Borgida is a distinguished Professor at the University of Minnesota, where he holds appointments in psychology, law, and political science. He is a Morse-Alumni Distinguished Professor of Psychology, and he has held the Fesler-Lambert Chair and Urban and Regional Affairs.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Sociology
• Geography
• Demography
• Gender studies
• Demographic economics
• Economics
• Law

Selected publications

• Ellen Berscheid (1936–2025).

  American Psychologist · 2026-03-30

  article

  Memorializes Ellen Berscheid (1936-2025), one of the cofounders of relationship science and a trailblazing pioneer for women in psychology. In 1965, she became the first woman hired in the business school at the University of Minnesota. In 1967, Jack Darley, chair of psychology at Minnesota, realized that Ellen had star potential and hired her. She rose to the rank of full professor in just 4 years. Over the next 4 decades, Ellen published many seminal articles and game-changing books that laid the foundation for relationship science. She received many of the most important awards in psychology, including the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award and the Association for Psychological Science's William James Award. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• Primary care clinicians' approaches to counseling hypertensive Black patients

  Patient Education and Counseling · 2025-07-15

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Judges at Risk: A Review of Homicides of U.S. Judges

  Behavioral Sciences & the Law · 2025-10-01

  reviewSenior author

  We identified 54 homicides of U.S. judges since the 1800s through news accounts, databases, and the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). Most (92.6%) decedents were men. More than half of the homicides had a connection to work. Firearms were the most common attack method. Although violence is relatively common in U.S. courts, homicides of judges are rare. Homicide nevertheless is an occupational hazard and potential threat for judges necessitating effective security measures to safeguard judges in and outside of courts. We advocate for the development of a comprehensive national database for refining risk management strategies throughout the judicial system. The psychological impact of violence, and how the judicial system responds to threats of judicial homicide, are public policy issues warranting additional study and resources.

  PublisherDOI

• Debunking misinformation on critical race theory

  Political Psychology · 2025-08-20

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract There continues to be a pressing need to design and test effective corrections in response to political misinformation, as citizens must have accurate information to be able to meaningfully participate in politics. Critical race theory (CRT) is an issue marked by widespread misinformation and controversy, leading to efforts in multiple states to ban CRT. In a three‐wave panel design with a nationally diverse U.S. sample, a correction of misinformation about CRT was tested. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) a control condition; (2) a misinformation‐only treatment; or (3) a misinformation plus correction treatment. Those in the misinformation plus correction condition had significantly higher accuracy scores than those in the control and misinformation‐only conditions. Moreover, this increased accuracy in the misinformation with correction condition was stronger among those most predisposed to accept CRT misinformation, that is, participants who scored high on a measure of unawareness of institutional discrimination. In contrast, participants' attitudes toward CRT bans were unaffected by the treatments, suggesting that correction can improve accuracy but does not change related opinions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Vigilante or patriot? Ideological influences on judgments of violent social movement members

  PsycEXTRA Dataset · 2023-01-01

  datasetSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Thou Shalt not Kill, Unless it is not a Human: Target Dehumanization May Influence Decision Difficulty and Response Patterns for Moral Dilemmas

  Social Cognition · 2021-12-01 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  Past research on moral dilemmas has thoroughly investigated the roles of personality and situational variables, but the role of targets in moral dilemmas has been relatively neglected. This article presents findings from four experiments that manipulated the perceived dehumanization of targets in moral dilemmas. Findings from Studies 1, 2, and 4 suggest that dehumanized targets may render the decision easier, and with less emotion. Findings from Studies 1 and 3, though not Studies 2 and 4, showed that dehumanization of targets in dilemmas may lead participants to make less deontological judgments. Findings from Study 3, but not Study 4, suggest that the effects of dehumanization manipulation on decision choices are potentially due to reduced deontological, but not utilitarian judgments. Though the patterns are somewhat inconsistent across the studies, overall, results suggest that targets' dehumanization can play a role in how people make their decisions in moral dilemmas.

  PublisherDOI

• Behavioral Economics in Plea-Bargain Decision-Making: Beyond the Shadow-of-Trial Model

  Review of Law & Economics · 2021-07-01 · 3 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Legal scholars have long assumed that plea bargains are contracts negotiated between rational actors who adhere to the dictates of the normative shadow-of-trial model. The two key features that rational actors presumably haggle over in the shadow of trial are the criminal charge (and associated sentence) and the probability of trial conviction. The behavioral economics theory of discounting , however, offers a theoretical foundation for testing the shadow-of-trial model. This article summarizes findings from experimental discounting studies in behavioral economics and psychological science – showing that these paradigms can be successfully applied to the plea-bargaining decision context wherein the likelihood of trial is uncertain and delayed, and the plea bargain is relatively certain and immediate. We suggest that the implications of applying discounting to plea bargaining are three-fold: (1) empirical evidence suggests that the shadow-of-trial model is too narrow; (2) the discounting of non-monetary losses may involve slightly different psychological processes than contexts involving monetary outcomes; and (3) probability of conviction and delay until trial constitute situational features that elicit guilty pleas despite a defendant’s factual innocence.

  PublisherDOI

• Panels [3 abstracts]

  2021 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW) · 2021-03-01

  articleOpen access

  Research on the existence and nature of implicit bias has generated a significant amount of attention in psychology and other social sciences over the past few decades. Considerable scientific and policy interest in prejudice reduction and bias interventions date all the way back to such classic texts as Gordon Allport's The Nature of Prejudice (1954), where intergroup contact theory as an approach to prejudice reduction was first introduced. Thousands of hours and millions of dollars have been invested developing and implementing a wide variety of anti-discrimination and anti-bias training programs

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Thou Shalt Not Kill, Unless It Is Not a Human: Target Dehumanization May Influence Decision Difficulty and Response Patterns for Moral Dilemmas

  2021-02-25

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Past research on moral dilemmas has thoroughly investigated the roles of personality and situational variables, but the role of targets in moral dilemmas has been relatively neglected. This paper presents findings from four experiments that manipulate the perceived dehumanization of targets in moral dilemmas. Studies 1, 2 and 4 suggest that dehumanized targets may render the decision easier, and with less emotion. Findings from Studies 1 and 3, though not Studies 2 and 4, show that dehumanization of targets in dilemmas may lead participants to make less deontological judgments. Study 3, but not Study 4, suggests that it is potentially because dehumanization has an effect on reducing deontological, but not utilitarian judgments. Though the patterns are somewhat inconsistent across studies, overall, results suggest that targets’ dehumanization can play a role in how people make their decisions in moral dilemmas.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Tribute to the Legacy of John L. Sullivan

  2020-01-29

  book-chapter

  Chapter 1 considers the unique contributions of John L. Sullivan to the field of political psychology through his own innovative research, his efforts to build the first of its kind Center for the Study of Political Psychology at the University of Minnesota, and his profound impact as mentor to generations of students during his career. Sullivan’s work has brought together theory and methodologies from both political science and psychology to transform the way we think about the nature of political tolerance and the essence of ideological belief systems in mass publics. This work employs innovative and influential measurement and methodological strategies such as the “least liked group” methodology and individual differences scaling. John’s work and his talent as a mentor influenced a number of distinguished political psychologists whose own work continues the themes that Sullivan and colleagues developed. These works have continued to develop our psychological understanding of political tolerance and its role in Democratic life, as well as how ideology informs (or does not inform) the structure of citizens’ political attitudes and beliefs.

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Recent grants

• Electronic Networks and Civic Life: A Longitudinal Study

  NSF · $400k · 2000–2004

Frequent coauthors

• Susan T. Flske

  American Psychological Association

  20 shared

• John L. Sullivan

  Muhlenberg College

  16 shared

• Susan T. Fiske

  Princeton University

  16 shared

• Grace Deason

  University of Wisconsin–La Crosse

  15 shared

• Howard Lavine

  University of Minnesota

  14 shared

• Anita Kim

  13 shared

• Margaret Bull Kovera

  The Graduate Center, CUNY

  12 shared

• Emily L. Fisher

  Hobart and William Smith Colleges

  10 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Psychology

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  1992

• M.S., Psychology

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  1988

• B.A., Psychology

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  1985

Awards & honors

• College Liberal Arts Teaching Award, University of Minnesota…
• College of Liberal Arts Scholars of the College, University…
• Morse Amoco/Alumni Teaching Award, University of Minnesota (…
• Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of…
• Distinguished Service Award, Society for the Psychological S…