Racial Justice Fellow (2026-27)
Gerald Higginbotham is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Psychology at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Utilizing social and cultural psychological insights, he researches the imprint of historical racial power dynamics on how people perceive and support group-based access to fundamental rights, and the psychological underpinnings of how people perceive history and its consequences. Higginbotham leads and is the Principal Investigator of the Culture, History, Identity, and Policy (CHIP) lab at the Batten School.
His published work has primarily examined this psychology in the context of U.S. firearm ownership and race (Higginbotham, 2025; Higginbotham, Sears, & Goldstein, 2023; Losee, Higginbotham, Kerner, Pogge, & Shepperd, 2026; Kerner, Losee, Higginbotham, & Shepperd, 2022; Trawalter, Higginbotham, Henderson, 2022). In his work on firearms, he examines how racism, racial group membership, and concerns about the power and status of one’s in-group contribute to the diverse motivations to own a firearm for self-defense and support firearm-related policy. Higginbotham’s work demonstrates that individuals belonging to dominant groups in society often perceive firearm ownership as a privilege reserved for the in-group rather than a right guaranteed to all.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Higginbotham received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from University of California, Los Angeles and holds an M.A. in Psychology from University of California, Los Angeles and a B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University with a minor in African & African-American Studies.
Fellowship Project: Defensive firearm ownership in the U.S. stems from the belief that the world is unsafe and institutions are unable to offer protection. Currently, there is severely low confidence in many core U.S. institutions and salient societal turmoil that many people feel threatened by. Further, institution-level change––from election outcomes to policies seeking to improve the social safety net––can make members of one racial group feel empowered and safe, while causing another to feel less empowered and threatened. Therefore, proposed institution-level changes may inadvertently increase motivations to own a firearm among individuals who feel their group will be disempowered and left unprotected by the change. In his project, Higginbotham examines this process using U.S. elections as one naturally occurring source of perceived institution-level change. And second, he examines whether institution-level change perceived to benefit a broader segment of the U.S. attenuates defensive motivations to own firearms.
Fellowship Project: Defensive firearm ownership in the U.S. stems from the belief that the world is unsafe and institutions are unable to offer protection. Currently, there is severely low confidence in many core U.S. institutions and salient societal turmoil that many people feel threatened by. Further, institution-level change––from election outcomes to policies seeking to improve the social safety net––can make members of one racial group feel empowered and safe, while causing another to feel less empowered and threatened. Therefore, proposed institution-level changes may inadvertently increase motivations to own a firearm among individuals who feel their group will be disempowered and left unprotected by the change. In his project, Higginbotham examines this process using U.S. elections as one naturally occurring source of perceived institution-level change. And second, he examines whether institution-level change perceived to benefit a broader segment of the U.S. attenuates defensive motivations to own firearms.