Will Gervais
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willgervais.com
Will Gervais
@willgervais.com
9.7K followers 5.3K following 1.9K posts

psych prof & author | culture & evolution | atheists | methodological pluralism FTW | comic & horror nerd | he/him

Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species https://www.amazon.com/Disbelief-Origins-Atheism-Religious-Species/dp/1633889246/ .. more

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willgervais.com
Will Gervais @willgervais.com · Nov 13
Hi all 👋

I’m a cultural & evolutionary scientist obsessed with 2 ideas:

1) humans are the only species with religion
2) within our religious species, atheism comes naturally

I wrote a book on that, here’s a short 🧵 with some fun book tidbits. Enjoy & share!

💙📚
🧪

www.amazon.com/Disbelief-Or...
Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species: Gervais Ph.D, Will M.: 9781633889248: Amazon.com: Books
Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species [Gervais Ph.D, Will M.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species
www.amazon.com

willgervais.com
Will Gervais @willgervais.com · 20h
Aww yeah that was the one! Cheers Sam

willgervais.com
Will Gervais @willgervais.com · 22h
sponsored ad before my search results. nice.
ad link for AI GENERATED LEGAL ANSWERS Ask any legal question and get instant answers from your trusted AI legal assistant.

willgervais.com
Will Gervais @willgervais.com · 22h
a while back i remember seeing a website where you could look up which copyrighted works had been fed into the LLM woodchipper. might've been related to a class action.

can any of y'all fine folks point me there?

willgervais.com
Will Gervais @willgervais.com · 22h
That was so much fun! Thanks for having me!

(I say a week later, haha. Haven't been on here much)

willgervais.com
Will Gervais @willgervais.com · 10d
I regret to inform you that the "onion on my belt" joke has become an onion on the belt

willgervais.com
Will Gervais @willgervais.com · 15d
The eternal struggle
Two buttons meme. Top panel has two red buttons. The one on the left is labeled "Do Not Push: Button Dangerous." The one on the right is labeled "Do Not Push: It's Against The Rules" Bottom panel is a white-begloved man of bold chin sweating in indecision as he ponders which button he may -- nay which button he MUST AND SHALL -- eventually press.

willgervais.com
Will Gervais @willgervais.com · 15d
#YOLO

willgervais.com
Will Gervais @willgervais.com · 15d
To that student, I salute you 🫡

willgervais.com
Will Gervais @willgervais.com · 15d
That was the sickest burn! I fucking cackled!

willgervais.com
Will Gervais @willgervais.com · 17d
Armed with THAMES, 80% of my students predicted that my shitty old Science study wouldn't replicate 🤘

Concerns cited: Cute assumptions, validity, weak results, cultural alternatives.

This was a lot of fun
Poll showing 80% of my students predicting NO! instead of YES! to the question "Would this replicate?" Upvote/downvote board. Prompt: What are the BIGGEST CONCERNS? +4: Cute Assumptions +3: Cultural, social, and contextual influences also matter +2: barely any validity +2: weak results

Reposted by Will M. Gervais

shannonfennellart.bsky.social
Shannon Fennell Artist @shannonfennellart.bsky.social · 19d
Nov 8th is #Evening for #BlueSkyArtShow

2" painting of evening in the Canadian boreal forest.

#Art #Artist #ArtYear #ArtShow #SmArtist #BskyArt #Painting #NatureArt #Landscape
@bsky.art
Scene of a winter sunset over a body of water with forested hills and islets encompassing it. The sun is very low on the horizon, a yellow ball in a greenish haze, with the night sky and stars above. The sun's lingering glow reflects across the water.

Reposted by Will M. Gervais

sculptedreef.com
SAHASA 🐙 @sculptedreef.com · 19d
🪸 Larger Pacific Striped Octopus 🐙 Sculpture

#ArtYear #Art #ArtGallery #Sculpture #Octopus #MarineLife #ArtSale #BSNM #Invertebrates 🦑🐡
A mixed media artwork featuring hand sculpted octopuses. The octopuses on this piece depict the species Larger Pacific Striped Octopus, a dark brown and white octopus with an iconic bar stripe spot pattern. Everything is built around a vintage tea set.

Reposted by Will M. Gervais

emilyhiggs-art.bsky.social
Emily Higgs Art @emilyhiggs-art.bsky.social · 19d
Pterosauria tree (vintage edition) ~ 🦅🌳
.
Alongside my ‘black edition’, I have also tested how my pterosaur illustration would look with a ‘vintage’ natural history illustration background’
.
What do you guys think? Which version do you prefer? The black or vintage background?

#paleoart

Reposted by Will M. Gervais

sophiecarr.bsky.social
Sophie Carr @sophiecarr.bsky.social · 20d
Another view from the magnificent Stokksnes, with the peaks of Vestrahorn and Brunnhorn visible.

#Iceland
Black sand dunes with some yellow/orange grasses. Behind are some mountain peaks with the top under some cloud.

Reposted by Will M. Gervais

gbrockell.bsky.social
Gillian Brockell @gbrockell.bsky.social · 20d
Folks, if you are hungry, please contact your local Sikh gurdwara. Or just show up for langar, which most gurdwaras do several times a week, for a free meal. Lots also do weekly or monthly drives giving out groceries.

No conversion necessary. Feeding anyone who is hungry is a key part of Sikhism.
fangirljeanne.bsky.social Jeanne (she/they) @fangirljeanne.bsky.social · 21d
A lady on TikTok has been calling churches pretending to be a mother with a baby who needs formula and several churches turned her away. But wouldn’t you know that when she called a Mosque (Islamic Center of Charlotte) they immediately said yes.

[Source: www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMpoxsaW/ ]
Islamic Center of Charlotte in Charlotte NC. Would help feed a starving baby no hesitation 🥰🥰🥰 #fyp #fypシ #fypシ゚viral #testingyourchurch #church #faith #religion #baby #hungrybabytest #viral #viralvid...
TikTok video by Nikalie 🌈
www.tiktok.com

Reposted by John Kennedy, Will M. Gervais

devezer.bsky.social
Berna Devezer @devezer.bsky.social · 21d
Reactions to the "debunking" of the original 1956 cognitive dissonance work baffles me. A whole area doesn't die just bec the first work is faulty. That's novelty bias & theory ownership in psych talking. Mendelian genetics did not die when Mendel's original results were found too good to be true.

willgervais.com
Will Gervais @willgervais.com · 21d
Thomas Ligotti with a new line for all the Reviewer 2s out there
I realize that psychology has charted some awfully weird areas in its maps of the mind, but you've gone so far into the ultra-mentational hinterlands of metaphysics that I fear you will not return (at least not with your reputation intact).

Reposted by Mark J. Brandt, Samantha Brennan, Will M. Gervais

theonion.com
The Onion @theonion.com · 22d
Flying Squirrel Loves It Every Time
Flying Squirrel Loves It Every Time

Reposted by Will M. Gervais

atropius.bsky.social
Jessie 🦇 @atropius.bsky.social · 24d
forgot to post my annual pumpkin
#art
A plastic pumpkin painted with a scene inspired by Over the Garden Wall. Greg and Wirt are walking down a spooky forest path and are surrounded by references to the series. There's a tree with creepy faces on the left, a big black dog with glowing eyes on the right, and a silhouette of the Beast in the distant foggy background. There are pumpkins with faces like those in Pottsfield on the path

Reposted by Brigitte Nerlich, Jesse M. Shapiro, Simon J. Greenhill , and 8 more

tomerullman.bsky.social
Tomer Ullman @tomerullman.bsky.social · 24d
Nature suggests you use their "Manuscript Adviser" bot to get advice before submitting

I uploaded the classic Watson & Crick paper about DNA structure, and the Adviser had this to say about one of the greatest paper endings of the century:

Reposted by Kori Schake, Joanna Bryson, Meredith Broussard , and 47 more

lswisnom.bsky.social
Dr Selena Wisnom @lswisnom.bsky.social · 24d
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

Reposted by Zen Faulkes, Will M. Gervais

sarahmackattack.bsky.social
Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 28d
The amount of AI generated art in slides at this conference, primarily used by older scientists, is killing me. Scientists please. Don’t use these ai platforms to make your figures or slides. They look bad and I have yet to see them meaningfully improve the message of talks.

Reposted by Will M. Gervais

weeder.bsky.social
weeder @weeder.bsky.social · 28d
Saved you a click: it's performing the charade of life in a spiritual wasteland
Beard and glasses man yawning in modern office BuzzFeed Doctors Warn This Common Daily Habit Is Making You Feel Exhausted All Day 18 hours ago. By Leigh Weingus

Reposted by Will M. Gervais

adamrl.bsky.social
Adam_RL @adamrl.bsky.social · 28d
Jack O' Lantern Sketches 2025 🎃 #Halloween
A series of spooky sketches that I'm going to use as the basis for the pumpkin carving I'm doing this year. from left to right: creepy grimace face; scribbly smile; Cyclops/ Beholder; Vampire Bat; Clown; Vampire; Werewolf and Mummy.

Reposted by Will M. Gervais

abigaillarson.com
Abigail Larson @abigaillarson.com · 28d
Halloween is almost here 🖤🍷🩸
Illustration by Abigail Larson for "The Horror Tarot" depicting a seance scene in tones of red. Hands rest on a planchette hovering over a Ouija board. There's a red curtain backdrop, and a vintage brass lamp with a red glass shade lights the scene. Small candles and a red glass water pitcher and goblet are arranged on the table. An illustration by Abigail Larson from "The Horror Tarot" depicting someone fast asleep in a large green antique bed while goblins with glowing yellow eyes and shadowy hands creep out from the darkness unnoticed. Illustration for the Horror Tarot of the Queen of Cups card showing a vampire in a Victorian dress drinking blood from a goblet. This illustration is from "The Horror Tarot" deck published by Insight Editions and illustrated by Abigail Larson. Illustration is a stylized version of "the chariot" tarot card depicting a black horse-drawn carriage approaching an ominously glowing cliff. The horse is rears at the edge of the deep red precipice. The background shows a large tree obscured by thick mist.

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Anna O. Law, Robert Falkner , and 10 more

scientits.bsky.social
Tits McGee @scientits.bsky.social · Oct 24
The German company that makes the mechanical ladder used in the Louvre heist has used the image to advertise, with the text 'When you need to move fast'

10/10 response, no notes
Image of the mechanical ladder outside the Louvre Text below says WENN'S MAL WIEDER SCHNELL GEHEN MUSS (When you need to move fast) Underneath is more German text which translates as "The Böcker Agilo transports your treasures weighing up to 400kg at 42m/min - quiet as a whisper."

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Arvind Narayanan, Dietram A. Scheufele , and 17 more

carlbergstrom.com
Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Oct 24
1. We ( @jbakcoleman.bsky.social, @cailinmeister.bsky.social, @jevinwest.bsky.social, and I) have a new preprint up on the arXiv.

There we explore how social media companies and other online information technology firms are able to manipulate scientific research about the effects of their products.
Three schematic diagrams. The first illustrates selective publishing of internal resection, the second selective causal focus, and the third selective access and funding for researchers.

willgervais.com
Will Gervais @willgervais.com · Oct 23
Solid hex

Reposted by Will M. Gervais

financialtimes.com
Financial Times @financialtimes.com · Oct 23
Time to add crypto to your Sipp or Isa? Wait, there’s a catch on.ft.com/42Ul817 | opinion
Time to add crypto to your Sipp or Isa? Wait, there’s a catch
Regulatory changes make it possible to gain exposure inside a UK tax wrapper — but few platforms offer them
on.ft.com

Reposted by Brian J. Enquist, Mark Rubin

willgervais.com
Will Gervais @willgervais.com · Oct 23
Spoiler alert: it's better to have a good theoretical understanding and design appropriate statistical models than it is to throw zillions of superficially "okay, fine" models at a poorly specified (and often deliberately vague) target.

A bit of good thinking >>> lots of poor thinking.

Shocking!