Erin Westgate
@erinwestgate.bsky.social
Social psychologist, studying boredom, interest, and thinking (...and why it's so hard for so many of us!). Assistant Professor @ University of Florida 🐊
🌐 erinwestgate.com
📸 https://instagram.com/erin.corwin.westgate
🌐 erinwestgate.com
📸 https://instagram.com/erin.corwin.westgate
Pinned
Erin Westgate
@erinwestgate.bsky.social
· Oct 20
🚨🚨 New tenure-track job posting! 🚨🚨
The University of Florida is hiring an Assistant Professor in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, with an open research focus.
Job ad here: explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53...
Here's some info about why you should apply to this job! 1/
The University of Florida is hiring an Assistant Professor in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, with an open research focus.
Job ad here: explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53...
Here's some info about why you should apply to this job! 1/
But wait!! There’s MORE!
Missed our social psych job ad? Never fear, cognitive is hiring!! 🔥 🐊
Missed our social psych job ad? Never fear, cognitive is hiring!! 🔥 🐊
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Re-routing of ships around the Cape of Good Hope led to a natural experiment.
By "comparing NO₂ [unaffected by the sulfur-reducing regulations], with cloud droplet number, which is sensitive to sulfur, [they] found a 67% reduction in ships' cloud-altering abilities" after the new IMO regulations.
By "comparing NO₂ [unaffected by the sulfur-reducing regulations], with cloud droplet number, which is sensitive to sulfur, [they] found a 67% reduction in ships' cloud-altering abilities" after the new IMO regulations.
When trade routes shift, so do clouds: Researchers uncover ripple effects of new global shipping regulations
When militia attacks disrupted shipping lanes in the Red Sea, few imagined the ripple effects would reach the clouds over the South Atlantic. But for Florida State University atmospheric scientist Mic...
phys.org
November 22, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Re-routing of ships around the Cape of Good Hope led to a natural experiment.
By "comparing NO₂ [unaffected by the sulfur-reducing regulations], with cloud droplet number, which is sensitive to sulfur, [they] found a 67% reduction in ships' cloud-altering abilities" after the new IMO regulations.
By "comparing NO₂ [unaffected by the sulfur-reducing regulations], with cloud droplet number, which is sensitive to sulfur, [they] found a 67% reduction in ships' cloud-altering abilities" after the new IMO regulations.
Reposted by Erin Westgate
New paper out in @jexpsocpsych.bsky.social !
We (@kwinter.bsky.social, @kaiepstude.bsky.social , Bob Fennis and I) found that encouraging counterfactual thinking reduces engagement with conspiracy theories (i.e., clicks on, and reading times for, conspiracy articles).
A 🧵
1/n
We (@kwinter.bsky.social, @kaiepstude.bsky.social , Bob Fennis and I) found that encouraging counterfactual thinking reduces engagement with conspiracy theories (i.e., clicks on, and reading times for, conspiracy articles).
A 🧵
1/n
November 27, 2025 at 9:40 AM
New paper out in @jexpsocpsych.bsky.social !
We (@kwinter.bsky.social, @kaiepstude.bsky.social , Bob Fennis and I) found that encouraging counterfactual thinking reduces engagement with conspiracy theories (i.e., clicks on, and reading times for, conspiracy articles).
A 🧵
1/n
We (@kwinter.bsky.social, @kaiepstude.bsky.social , Bob Fennis and I) found that encouraging counterfactual thinking reduces engagement with conspiracy theories (i.e., clicks on, and reading times for, conspiracy articles).
A 🧵
1/n
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Among white people, the correlation between racial resentment and their voting decision is much, much stronger than between educational attainment and political alignment.
In fact, if you control for racial resentment, education polarization basically disappears.
In fact, if you control for racial resentment, education polarization basically disappears.
November 27, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Among white people, the correlation between racial resentment and their voting decision is much, much stronger than between educational attainment and political alignment.
In fact, if you control for racial resentment, education polarization basically disappears.
In fact, if you control for racial resentment, education polarization basically disappears.
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Stop submitting AI slop to journals and preprint servers
This is anti-social behavior. It is making life harder for everyone involved except for the person submitting the slop
This is anti-social behavior. It is making life harder for everyone involved except for the person submitting the slop
In light of record submission rates and a large volume of AI-generated slop, SocArXiv recently implemented a policy requiring ORCIDs linked in the OSF profile of submitting authors, and narrowing our focus to social science subjects. Today we are taking two more steps:
/1
/1
November 27, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Stop submitting AI slop to journals and preprint servers
This is anti-social behavior. It is making life harder for everyone involved except for the person submitting the slop
This is anti-social behavior. It is making life harder for everyone involved except for the person submitting the slop
Reposted by Erin Westgate
🚨 New preprint!
We reviewed 263 studies on racial & ethnic prejudice measures. Most are psychometrically weak and conceptually narrow. Only 4% meet high-quality standards. We call for rigorous, theory-driven, culturally sensitive tools.
📖 osf.io/xwbyz_v1
#PrejudiceResearch #SocialPsychology
We reviewed 263 studies on racial & ethnic prejudice measures. Most are psychometrically weak and conceptually narrow. Only 4% meet high-quality standards. We call for rigorous, theory-driven, culturally sensitive tools.
📖 osf.io/xwbyz_v1
#PrejudiceResearch #SocialPsychology
OSF
osf.io
November 27, 2025 at 2:28 PM
🚨 New preprint!
We reviewed 263 studies on racial & ethnic prejudice measures. Most are psychometrically weak and conceptually narrow. Only 4% meet high-quality standards. We call for rigorous, theory-driven, culturally sensitive tools.
📖 osf.io/xwbyz_v1
#PrejudiceResearch #SocialPsychology
We reviewed 263 studies on racial & ethnic prejudice measures. Most are psychometrically weak and conceptually narrow. Only 4% meet high-quality standards. We call for rigorous, theory-driven, culturally sensitive tools.
📖 osf.io/xwbyz_v1
#PrejudiceResearch #SocialPsychology
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Before the monstrous transformation of Twitter to X, it was considered normal to be active on academic Twitter. Now, even though we've migrated to Bluesky ("safe space"), I feel that many ppl (including myself) are less active in posting anything. Have you noticed this trend? Or am I imagining this?
November 25, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Before the monstrous transformation of Twitter to X, it was considered normal to be active on academic Twitter. Now, even though we've migrated to Bluesky ("safe space"), I feel that many ppl (including myself) are less active in posting anything. Have you noticed this trend? Or am I imagining this?
Grateful for floaty potatoes this day before Thanksgiving 😍
November 27, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Grateful for floaty potatoes this day before Thanksgiving 😍
Reposted by Erin Westgate
📣Do people across the world want to remember positive ingroup histories? Based on 7,665 ratings of 360 events in 7 countries, we find striking cross-national differences, showing that striving for positive ingroup memories is not a basic principle.
📘In press at JPSP. Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...
📘In press at JPSP. Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...
November 26, 2025 at 10:35 AM
📣Do people across the world want to remember positive ingroup histories? Based on 7,665 ratings of 360 events in 7 countries, we find striking cross-national differences, showing that striving for positive ingroup memories is not a basic principle.
📘In press at JPSP. Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...
📘In press at JPSP. Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Holiday stress isn’t just about the turkey 🦃—when parents feel burned out during the holidays, their genuine emotional expression drops.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
@juliareiter.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
@juliareiter.bsky.social
Higher momentary parental burnout predicts lower subsequent emotional expression in parents during the festive season - Communications Psychology
Using a 35-day experience sampling study with 293 parents, this research explores dynamic links between parental burnout and genuine emotional expression during the holiday season, uncovering unidirec...
www.nature.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Holiday stress isn’t just about the turkey 🦃—when parents feel burned out during the holidays, their genuine emotional expression drops.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
@juliareiter.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
@juliareiter.bsky.social
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Does Fame kill? Our new study suggests that famous singers have substantially higher risk of dying young than a group of closely matched less famous singers jech.bmj.com/content/jech...
November 26, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Does Fame kill? Our new study suggests that famous singers have substantially higher risk of dying young than a group of closely matched less famous singers jech.bmj.com/content/jech...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
New paper from the lab, "Perceiving Event Structure in Brief Actions," now out in Cognitive Psychology :)
Led by the inimitable Zekun Sun
This was my lab's first foray into event cognition
gift link: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Led by the inimitable Zekun Sun
This was my lab's first foray into event cognition
gift link: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 25, 2025 at 3:40 PM
New paper from the lab, "Perceiving Event Structure in Brief Actions," now out in Cognitive Psychology :)
Led by the inimitable Zekun Sun
This was my lab's first foray into event cognition
gift link: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Led by the inimitable Zekun Sun
This was my lab's first foray into event cognition
gift link: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Happy to share our latest study published in PNAS.
Using data from 274,316 French students, we find that lower-SES students are less likely to wait for better university offers, even when waiting would lead to more prestigious or better-fit programs.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Using data from 274,316 French students, we find that lower-SES students are less likely to wait for better university offers, even when waiting would lead to more prestigious or better-fit programs.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Waiting time during admission procedures increases social inequalities in higher education | PNAS
Many domains in life require people to wait to access better outcomes, such as waiting
in line to access prized tickets for a show, waiting to obta...
www.pnas.org
November 26, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Happy to share our latest study published in PNAS.
Using data from 274,316 French students, we find that lower-SES students are less likely to wait for better university offers, even when waiting would lead to more prestigious or better-fit programs.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Using data from 274,316 French students, we find that lower-SES students are less likely to wait for better university offers, even when waiting would lead to more prestigious or better-fit programs.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
This is the funniest piece imaginable in the dull world of the otherwise sickly sycophantic tech review.
For real. Read it, even if you don’t give a rat’s ass about printers.
For real. Read it, even if you don’t give a rat’s ass about printers.
November 23, 2025 at 1:59 AM
This is the funniest piece imaginable in the dull world of the otherwise sickly sycophantic tech review.
For real. Read it, even if you don’t give a rat’s ass about printers.
For real. Read it, even if you don’t give a rat’s ass about printers.
Reposted by Erin Westgate
It’s really hard to defend industry academic collaborations with meta as earnest, if they’re internally burying evidence of harm.
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
November 23, 2025 at 6:22 PM
It’s really hard to defend industry academic collaborations with meta as earnest, if they’re internally burying evidence of harm.
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Our new paper is out in Nature Communications! nature.com/articles/s41...
We combined psychophysics, 7T fMRI, and computational modeling of vision with placebo, 5mg, and 10mg psilocybin, in the same group of participants, to clarify the computational mechanisms of psychedelics. 🧵
We combined psychophysics, 7T fMRI, and computational modeling of vision with placebo, 5mg, and 10mg psilocybin, in the same group of participants, to clarify the computational mechanisms of psychedelics. 🧵
November 23, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Our new paper is out in Nature Communications! nature.com/articles/s41...
We combined psychophysics, 7T fMRI, and computational modeling of vision with placebo, 5mg, and 10mg psilocybin, in the same group of participants, to clarify the computational mechanisms of psychedelics. 🧵
We combined psychophysics, 7T fMRI, and computational modeling of vision with placebo, 5mg, and 10mg psilocybin, in the same group of participants, to clarify the computational mechanisms of psychedelics. 🧵
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Empirically, more extensive project descriptions do not affect the eventual decision anyway:
"We find that withholding proposal texts from panelists did not
detectibly impact their proposal rankings."
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
"We find that withholding proposal texts from panelists did not
detectibly impact their proposal rankings."
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Do grant proposal texts matter for funding decisions? A field experiment - Scientometrics
Scientists and funding agencies invest considerable resources in writing and evaluating grant proposals. But do grant proposal texts noticeably change panel decisions in single blind review? We report...
link.springer.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:13 AM
Empirically, more extensive project descriptions do not affect the eventual decision anyway:
"We find that withholding proposal texts from panelists did not
detectibly impact their proposal rankings."
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
"We find that withholding proposal texts from panelists did not
detectibly impact their proposal rankings."
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Statement regarding the Bloomberg article "Oxford University Has Failed Women Over Harassment Concerns, Staff Say" by Oliver Christ, Mathias Kauff (@matkau.bsky.social), Sybille Neji, Sarina J. Schäfer (@dr-in.bsky.social)
ICRN Statement: contactresearch.substack.com/p/icrn-respo...
ICRN Statement: contactresearch.substack.com/p/icrn-respo...
November 24, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Statement regarding the Bloomberg article "Oxford University Has Failed Women Over Harassment Concerns, Staff Say" by Oliver Christ, Mathias Kauff (@matkau.bsky.social), Sybille Neji, Sarina J. Schäfer (@dr-in.bsky.social)
ICRN Statement: contactresearch.substack.com/p/icrn-respo...
ICRN Statement: contactresearch.substack.com/p/icrn-respo...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Tell readers everything they need to know to understand your studies & nothing more. Eg in a study comparing X & Y year olds, explain why you expect your DV to change between that age, don't review everything that is currently known about kids of those ages.
Dear #AcademicSky,
What are your tips for an efficient but not too long #LiteratureReview in order to also start #AcWri?
Yours,
Georgios.
What are your tips for an efficient but not too long #LiteratureReview in order to also start #AcWri?
Yours,
Georgios.
November 24, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Tell readers everything they need to know to understand your studies & nothing more. Eg in a study comparing X & Y year olds, explain why you expect your DV to change between that age, don't review everything that is currently known about kids of those ages.
Reposted by Erin Westgate
12th grade girls are now less likely to say they want to get married someday
1993: 83%
2023: 61%
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
1993: 83%
2023: 61%
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
November 23, 2025 at 11:30 PM
12th grade girls are now less likely to say they want to get married someday
1993: 83%
2023: 61%
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
1993: 83%
2023: 61%
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Taonius borealis has a special place in my heart because of this one photo. It looks so sad that it just tugs at the heart strings.
Why are you sad, Taonius borealis? I hope you feel better soon...
Why are you sad, Taonius borealis? I hope you feel better soon...
November 24, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Taonius borealis has a special place in my heart because of this one photo. It looks so sad that it just tugs at the heart strings.
Why are you sad, Taonius borealis? I hope you feel better soon...
Why are you sad, Taonius borealis? I hope you feel better soon...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Social psych friends, please help me out with a class discussion by responding to the following (and sharing):
What do you see as the biggest challenge for social and personality psychology in the immediate future? What should we as a field be doing better than we are now?
What do you see as the biggest challenge for social and personality psychology in the immediate future? What should we as a field be doing better than we are now?
November 23, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Social psych friends, please help me out with a class discussion by responding to the following (and sharing):
What do you see as the biggest challenge for social and personality psychology in the immediate future? What should we as a field be doing better than we are now?
What do you see as the biggest challenge for social and personality psychology in the immediate future? What should we as a field be doing better than we are now?
Reposted by Erin Westgate
The Professors Who Stayed Close With Epstein www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/u...
The Professors Who Stayed Close With Epstein
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 12:49 PM
The Professors Who Stayed Close With Epstein www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/u...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Jumping spiders can recognise one another. This ability to learn, remember and represent images is quite surprising for such a tiny-brained animal!
buff.ly/dCkwPr0
buff.ly/dCkwPr0
November 23, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Jumping spiders can recognise one another. This ability to learn, remember and represent images is quite surprising for such a tiny-brained animal!
buff.ly/dCkwPr0
buff.ly/dCkwPr0
Reposted by Erin Westgate
@sjdm-tweets.bsky.social
Why does "1-in-X" (e.g., 1 in 50 vs. 20 in 1000) feel riskier? The answer: It's the availability heuristic! We found that the 1-in-X ratio is easier to mentally visualize and recall examples for.
Risk Communication Poster at #SJDM2025 in Denver, Colorado!
Why does "1-in-X" (e.g., 1 in 50 vs. 20 in 1000) feel riskier? The answer: It's the availability heuristic! We found that the 1-in-X ratio is easier to mentally visualize and recall examples for.
Risk Communication Poster at #SJDM2025 in Denver, Colorado!
November 23, 2025 at 1:25 AM
@sjdm-tweets.bsky.social
Why does "1-in-X" (e.g., 1 in 50 vs. 20 in 1000) feel riskier? The answer: It's the availability heuristic! We found that the 1-in-X ratio is easier to mentally visualize and recall examples for.
Risk Communication Poster at #SJDM2025 in Denver, Colorado!
Why does "1-in-X" (e.g., 1 in 50 vs. 20 in 1000) feel riskier? The answer: It's the availability heuristic! We found that the 1-in-X ratio is easier to mentally visualize and recall examples for.
Risk Communication Poster at #SJDM2025 in Denver, Colorado!