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
· Dec 24
Are you living a good life? Take this quiz to find out.
Now is a good time to reflect on the life you’re leading — and what you want out of it.
www.washingtonpost.com
Are you leading a (mostly) happy life, a meaningful life, or a psychologically rich life? Take this fun quiz at the Washington Post and find out!
www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/int...?
www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/int...?
Reposted by Erin Westgate
My first paper is out in #SociologicalScience!
With Jörg Stolz and Ruud Luijkx, we found robust evidence of ideological #bias in #secularization research: researchers' own religiosity is correlated with their probability of finding evidence of religious decline in their publications.
Read more: 👇
With Jörg Stolz and Ruud Luijkx, we found robust evidence of ideological #bias in #secularization research: researchers' own religiosity is correlated with their probability of finding evidence of religious decline in their publications.
Read more: 👇
NEW: Valeria Rainero, Jörg Stolz, Ruud Luijkx, The Faith Factor. How Scholars’ Religiosity Biases Research Findings on Secularization sociologicalscience.com/articles-v13...
sociologicalscience.com
February 11, 2026 at 10:22 AM
My first paper is out in #SociologicalScience!
With Jörg Stolz and Ruud Luijkx, we found robust evidence of ideological #bias in #secularization research: researchers' own religiosity is correlated with their probability of finding evidence of religious decline in their publications.
Read more: 👇
With Jörg Stolz and Ruud Luijkx, we found robust evidence of ideological #bias in #secularization research: researchers' own religiosity is correlated with their probability of finding evidence of religious decline in their publications.
Read more: 👇
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Found one in the wild! Models of the language network in a published paper in a (presumably) predatory journal.
I think I'd be concerned if a patient had four anterior temporal lobes in their lert hemisphere, it might affect their conprehension
#NeuroSkyence
I think I'd be concerned if a patient had four anterior temporal lobes in their lert hemisphere, it might affect their conprehension
#NeuroSkyence
February 11, 2026 at 9:57 PM
Found one in the wild! Models of the language network in a published paper in a (presumably) predatory journal.
I think I'd be concerned if a patient had four anterior temporal lobes in their lert hemisphere, it might affect their conprehension
#NeuroSkyence
I think I'd be concerned if a patient had four anterior temporal lobes in their lert hemisphere, it might affect their conprehension
#NeuroSkyence
Ohhhhhh this is pretty cool!
February 11, 2026 at 11:01 PM
Ohhhhhh this is pretty cool!
Reposted by Erin Westgate
New preprint from Lindsey Tepfer (@ltjaql.bsky.social) and me! We silenced portions of internal monologues in two films to manipulate participants' access to characters' thoughts. Using ISC and RSA, we found that this aligned later neural processing of the narrative & encoding of trait impressions.
February 11, 2026 at 8:26 PM
New preprint from Lindsey Tepfer (@ltjaql.bsky.social) and me! We silenced portions of internal monologues in two films to manipulate participants' access to characters' thoughts. Using ISC and RSA, we found that this aligned later neural processing of the narrative & encoding of trait impressions.
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Postdoc position!
Myself and @jordanaxt.bsky.social are seeking applications for a shared post-doctoral researcher at McGill, beginning Fall 2026.
Topic area broadly centered on intergroup dynamics, prejudice, discrimination
Full description here: hehmanlab.org/ad
1/2
Myself and @jordanaxt.bsky.social are seeking applications for a shared post-doctoral researcher at McGill, beginning Fall 2026.
Topic area broadly centered on intergroup dynamics, prejudice, discrimination
Full description here: hehmanlab.org/ad
1/2
ad
hehmanlab.org
February 11, 2026 at 7:45 PM
Postdoc position!
Myself and @jordanaxt.bsky.social are seeking applications for a shared post-doctoral researcher at McGill, beginning Fall 2026.
Topic area broadly centered on intergroup dynamics, prejudice, discrimination
Full description here: hehmanlab.org/ad
1/2
Myself and @jordanaxt.bsky.social are seeking applications for a shared post-doctoral researcher at McGill, beginning Fall 2026.
Topic area broadly centered on intergroup dynamics, prejudice, discrimination
Full description here: hehmanlab.org/ad
1/2
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Trust in leadership is essential to success
A new study found that PhD students who had greater trust in their graduate advisor finished their first year more motivated, higher in well-being, and more academically successful than those with lower advisor trust.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
A new study found that PhD students who had greater trust in their graduate advisor finished their first year more motivated, higher in well-being, and more academically successful than those with lower advisor trust.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
February 11, 2026 at 1:49 PM
Trust in leadership is essential to success
A new study found that PhD students who had greater trust in their graduate advisor finished their first year more motivated, higher in well-being, and more academically successful than those with lower advisor trust.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
A new study found that PhD students who had greater trust in their graduate advisor finished their first year more motivated, higher in well-being, and more academically successful than those with lower advisor trust.
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Gallup will no longer measure presidential approval after 88 years thehill.com/homenews/med...
February 11, 2026 at 7:12 PM
Gallup will no longer measure presidential approval after 88 years thehill.com/homenews/med...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
New paper alert! 🚨
We found that the brain's compass is remarkably stable at two scales
1️⃣ the system maintains its internal organization for weeks
2️⃣ It "remembers" its orientation for weeks, even after a single visit
This may be key to how the brain aligns its other maps.
Paper: rdcu.be/e3waP
We found that the brain's compass is remarkably stable at two scales
1️⃣ the system maintains its internal organization for weeks
2️⃣ It "remembers" its orientation for weeks, even after a single visit
This may be key to how the brain aligns its other maps.
Paper: rdcu.be/e3waP
February 11, 2026 at 5:52 PM
New paper alert! 🚨
We found that the brain's compass is remarkably stable at two scales
1️⃣ the system maintains its internal organization for weeks
2️⃣ It "remembers" its orientation for weeks, even after a single visit
This may be key to how the brain aligns its other maps.
Paper: rdcu.be/e3waP
We found that the brain's compass is remarkably stable at two scales
1️⃣ the system maintains its internal organization for weeks
2️⃣ It "remembers" its orientation for weeks, even after a single visit
This may be key to how the brain aligns its other maps.
Paper: rdcu.be/e3waP
Reposted by Erin Westgate
ISCON and PMIG call for nominations for the Ostrom Award for Career Contribution to Social Cognition.
Eligibility: 25 years post PhD (awards are not given posthumously).
More detail here:
www.socialcognition.net/ostrom-award
1/2
Eligibility: 25 years post PhD (awards are not given posthumously).
More detail here:
www.socialcognition.net/ostrom-award
1/2
Ostrom Award | Home
www.socialcognition.net
February 11, 2026 at 9:19 PM
ISCON and PMIG call for nominations for the Ostrom Award for Career Contribution to Social Cognition.
Eligibility: 25 years post PhD (awards are not given posthumously).
More detail here:
www.socialcognition.net/ostrom-award
1/2
Eligibility: 25 years post PhD (awards are not given posthumously).
More detail here:
www.socialcognition.net/ostrom-award
1/2
Reposted by Erin Westgate
A meta-analysis on reducing discrimination finds:
1) passive interventions, such as short-term education or bias reminders, are ineffective
2) targeting behavior directly to inhibit bias (eg making individuals accountable or changing social norms) is helpful
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
1) passive interventions, such as short-term education or bias reminders, are ineffective
2) targeting behavior directly to inhibit bias (eg making individuals accountable or changing social norms) is helpful
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
February 11, 2026 at 2:32 PM
A meta-analysis on reducing discrimination finds:
1) passive interventions, such as short-term education or bias reminders, are ineffective
2) targeting behavior directly to inhibit bias (eg making individuals accountable or changing social norms) is helpful
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
1) passive interventions, such as short-term education or bias reminders, are ineffective
2) targeting behavior directly to inhibit bias (eg making individuals accountable or changing social norms) is helpful
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Someone on Reddit posted about the rice theory, and it generated a lot of buzz! What a feeling to have your dissertation get people interested in research. 🤓 The only downside I see is the poster demoted it from theory to hypothesis. Fair! 😆https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/s/s0ltdiwdwf
February 11, 2026 at 12:23 AM
Someone on Reddit posted about the rice theory, and it generated a lot of buzz! What a feeling to have your dissertation get people interested in research. 🤓 The only downside I see is the poster demoted it from theory to hypothesis. Fair! 😆https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/s/s0ltdiwdwf
Reposted by Erin Westgate
🎉 New paper in Nature Communications 🎉
rdcu.be/e24jT
Does our environment influence how likely we are to help others?
rdcu.be/e24jT
Does our environment influence how likely we are to help others?
Humans are more prosocial in poor foraging environments
Nature Communications - People constantly decide whether to stop what they are doing to do something else. Here, the authors show that the quality of available options has a greater influence on...
rdcu.be
February 10, 2026 at 11:27 AM
🎉 New paper in Nature Communications 🎉
rdcu.be/e24jT
Does our environment influence how likely we are to help others?
rdcu.be/e24jT
Does our environment influence how likely we are to help others?
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Increasing autism rates over the last 25 years may just be kids with mild forms getting diagnosed. Rates of moderate to severe impairment due to autism have actually fallen slightly.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
![The autistic community is a large, growing, and heterogeneous population, and there is a need for improved methods to describe their diverse needs. Measures of adaptive functioning collected through public health surveillance may provide valuable information on functioning and support needs at a population level. We aimed to use adaptive behavior and cognitive scores abstracted from health and educational records to describe trends over time in the population prevalence of autism by adaptive level and co-occurrence of intellectual disability (ID). Using data from the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, years 2000 to 2016, we estimated the prevalence of autism per 1000 8-year-old children by four levels of adaptive challenges (moderate to profound, mild, borderline, or none) and by co-occurrence of ID. The prevalence of autism with mild, borderline, or no significant adaptive challenges increased between 2000 and 2016, from 5.1 per 1000 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.6–5.5) to 17.6 (95% CI: 17.1–18.1) while the prevalence of autism with moderate to profound challenges decreased slightly, from 1.5 (95% CI: 1.2–1.7) to 1.2 (95% CI: 1.1–1.4). The prevalence increase was greater for autism without co-occurring ID than for autism with co-occurring ID. The increase in autism prevalence between 2000 and 2016 was confined to autism with milder phenotypes. This trend could indicate improved identification of milder forms of autism over time. It is possible that increased access to therapies that improve intellectual and adaptive functioning of children diagnosed with autism also contributed to the trends.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:j76trmiofvaxxpvx2vnb2vwf/bafkreibeoudvh2b4ifuiqq7pmnzwg6y6n3caschubukvo6kzqcfn2kdf5i@jpeg)
February 10, 2026 at 11:26 PM
Increasing autism rates over the last 25 years may just be kids with mild forms getting diagnosed. Rates of moderate to severe impairment due to autism have actually fallen slightly.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Proud advisor moment. Check out my student, Emily Zohar's, new paper (her first first-authored paper) on how norms shape how effort. Yes, when we see hard workers around us, we work harder. But...when we see lazy people around us, we also work harder. Check it out!
psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
APA PsycNet
psycnet.apa.org
February 10, 2026 at 1:39 PM
Proud advisor moment. Check out my student, Emily Zohar's, new paper (her first first-authored paper) on how norms shape how effort. Yes, when we see hard workers around us, we work harder. But...when we see lazy people around us, we also work harder. Check it out!
psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Give it a try here!
self-model.github.io/pretendingNo...
self-model.github.io/pretendingNo...
February 10, 2026 at 5:54 PM
Give it a try here!
self-model.github.io/pretendingNo...
self-model.github.io/pretendingNo...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Civil conversations reduce attitude polarization more than people anticipate.
People with opposing attitudes toward cats and dogs, cancel culture, and Joe Biden underestimated how much their own and others’ attitudes would depolarize in spoken conversations.
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
People with opposing attitudes toward cats and dogs, cancel culture, and Joe Biden underestimated how much their own and others’ attitudes would depolarize in spoken conversations.
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
February 10, 2026 at 8:31 PM
Civil conversations reduce attitude polarization more than people anticipate.
People with opposing attitudes toward cats and dogs, cancel culture, and Joe Biden underestimated how much their own and others’ attitudes would depolarize in spoken conversations.
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
People with opposing attitudes toward cats and dogs, cancel culture, and Joe Biden underestimated how much their own and others’ attitudes would depolarize in spoken conversations.
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
📢 New Paper 🚨
Hadza food-sharing is egalitarian, yet offers in giving games have never matched the equitable redistribution seen in real life.
In this study, we allowed people to give *or* take. Lifelike equitable distributions only appeared when people took from peers in surplus.
bit.ly/4kvLOwA
Hadza food-sharing is egalitarian, yet offers in giving games have never matched the equitable redistribution seen in real life.
In this study, we allowed people to give *or* take. Lifelike equitable distributions only appeared when people took from peers in surplus.
bit.ly/4kvLOwA
The “I” in egalitarianism: Hadza hunter-gatherers averse to inequality primarily when personally unfavorable
Abstract. Many economists contend that humans have strong, universal, other-regarding equality preferences with deep evolutionary roots. Indeed, many hunte
academic.oup.com
February 10, 2026 at 4:23 PM
📢 New Paper 🚨
Hadza food-sharing is egalitarian, yet offers in giving games have never matched the equitable redistribution seen in real life.
In this study, we allowed people to give *or* take. Lifelike equitable distributions only appeared when people took from peers in surplus.
bit.ly/4kvLOwA
Hadza food-sharing is egalitarian, yet offers in giving games have never matched the equitable redistribution seen in real life.
In this study, we allowed people to give *or* take. Lifelike equitable distributions only appeared when people took from peers in surplus.
bit.ly/4kvLOwA
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Introducing “Pretend Battleship”: you’re told where all the ships are but then have to play like you never got that information. Could you do it? And what would your performance reveal about your understanding of your own mind? A joy to be part of this creative project led by @matanmazor.bsky.social
Very happy to see "Pretending not to know reveals a capacity for model-based self-simulation", a collaboration with @chazfirestone.bsky.social and @ianbphillips.bsky.social, out in Psych. Science!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177...
🧵
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177...
🧵
February 10, 2026 at 8:40 PM
Introducing “Pretend Battleship”: you’re told where all the ships are but then have to play like you never got that information. Could you do it? And what would your performance reveal about your understanding of your own mind? A joy to be part of this creative project led by @matanmazor.bsky.social
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Very happy to see "Pretending not to know reveals a capacity for model-based self-simulation", a collaboration with @chazfirestone.bsky.social and @ianbphillips.bsky.social, out in Psych. Science!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177...
🧵
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177...
🧵
February 10, 2026 at 5:25 PM
Very happy to see "Pretending not to know reveals a capacity for model-based self-simulation", a collaboration with @chazfirestone.bsky.social and @ianbphillips.bsky.social, out in Psych. Science!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177...
🧵
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177...
🧵
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Whale evolution makes me uncomfortable
February 9, 2026 at 7:48 PM
Whale evolution makes me uncomfortable
Reposted by Erin Westgate
so i talked to one of the bushes at the super bowl
www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/...
www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/...
What it was like to be a bush at Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance
The bushes on the field during the halftime show became a meme after the internet found out they were actually human performers.
www.nbcnews.com
February 10, 2026 at 12:30 AM
so i talked to one of the bushes at the super bowl
www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/...
www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/...
Reposted by Erin Westgate
Great to see this crazy psychophysics of pitch perception paper out, basically showing that the brain does a 'motion detection' of spectrotemporal correlations to infer pitch sometimes.
lead author: Parisa Vaziri
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
lead author: Parisa Vaziri
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Humans can use positive and negative spectrotemporal correlations to detect rising and falling pitch - Nature Human Behaviour
Vaziri et al. examined how humans detect changes in auditory pitch, revealing that listeners rely on correlations in sound intensity over frequency and time, processing that is reminiscent of visual m...
www.nature.com
February 10, 2026 at 7:44 AM
Great to see this crazy psychophysics of pitch perception paper out, basically showing that the brain does a 'motion detection' of spectrotemporal correlations to infer pitch sometimes.
lead author: Parisa Vaziri
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
lead author: Parisa Vaziri
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Congrats, Calvin!!! 🧡
February 10, 2026 at 3:06 AM
Congrats, Calvin!!! 🧡
Reposted by Erin Westgate
I'm honored to be the recipient of the 2026 Kellina Craig-Henderson Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Accessibility Award from FABBS!🏆
Here's a chat w/ past FABBS president Jeff Zacks about implicit bias, reducing discrimination, & translating research into practice.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbNK...
Here's a chat w/ past FABBS president Jeff Zacks about implicit bias, reducing discrimination, & translating research into practice.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbNK...
FABBS 2025 Kellina Craig-Henderson IDEA Award Winner: Calvin Lai, PhD
YouTube video by FABBS
www.youtube.com
February 4, 2026 at 4:20 PM
I'm honored to be the recipient of the 2026 Kellina Craig-Henderson Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Accessibility Award from FABBS!🏆
Here's a chat w/ past FABBS president Jeff Zacks about implicit bias, reducing discrimination, & translating research into practice.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbNK...
Here's a chat w/ past FABBS president Jeff Zacks about implicit bias, reducing discrimination, & translating research into practice.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbNK...