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
Grateful for floaty potatoes this day before Thanksgiving 😍
November 27, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Grateful for floaty potatoes this day before Thanksgiving 😍
My wonderful undergrads in my Peak Experiences seminar decided it was Friendsgiving today - homemade empanadas, sushi, pizza, Cajun pasta, shrimp, chocolate coke, rice crispie treats. Tres leche, and more…
The kids are alright
The kids are alright
November 21, 2025 at 3:59 AM
My wonderful undergrads in my Peak Experiences seminar decided it was Friendsgiving today - homemade empanadas, sushi, pizza, Cajun pasta, shrimp, chocolate coke, rice crispie treats. Tres leche, and more…
The kids are alright
The kids are alright
Dive buddy: Hey girl I finished my mold assessment. We had one really nasty critter that's associated with eating spinal cords
Me:
Dive buddy: It's sitting on my desk!
***Please send thoughts and prayers***
Me:
Dive buddy: It's sitting on my desk!
***Please send thoughts and prayers***
November 20, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Dive buddy: Hey girl I finished my mold assessment. We had one really nasty critter that's associated with eating spinal cords
Me:
Dive buddy: It's sitting on my desk!
***Please send thoughts and prayers***
Me:
Dive buddy: It's sitting on my desk!
***Please send thoughts and prayers***
Dive buddy: So yeah, there's some mold at work and I cultured it to see if its toxic
Me: you what?
Dive buddy: I keep them in a drawer in my office.
Me: you what?!
(IT GETS WORSE)
Me: you what?
Dive buddy: I keep them in a drawer in my office.
Me: you what?!
(IT GETS WORSE)
November 20, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Dive buddy: So yeah, there's some mold at work and I cultured it to see if its toxic
Me: you what?
Dive buddy: I keep them in a drawer in my office.
Me: you what?!
(IT GETS WORSE)
Me: you what?
Dive buddy: I keep them in a drawer in my office.
Me: you what?!
(IT GETS WORSE)
It's time for my annual reminder that Thanksgiving will (likely) be more meaningful than you think 🦃
November 20, 2025 at 1:51 PM
It's time for my annual reminder that Thanksgiving will (likely) be more meaningful than you think 🦃
“In 2028, my prediction is that podcasts are going to be important”
November 14, 2025 at 5:21 PM
“In 2028, my prediction is that podcasts are going to be important”
Has social media polarized us? From 2012-2020, Facebook and Twitter users encountered more dissenting views (which predicted hated their political out groups less).
Then the media landscape changed.
Myiah Hudson, UF Journalism
Then the media landscape changed.
Myiah Hudson, UF Journalism
November 14, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Has social media polarized us? From 2012-2020, Facebook and Twitter users encountered more dissenting views (which predicted hated their political out groups less).
Then the media landscape changed.
Myiah Hudson, UF Journalism
Then the media landscape changed.
Myiah Hudson, UF Journalism
If you’ve never done something before, how do you know whether other people are any good? One way is to use yourself as a basis for comparison. Novice scuba divers appear to anchor their estimates of OTHER beginner divers in their appraisals of their OWN scuba diving ability. #SSSP2025
November 8, 2025 at 2:53 PM
If you’ve never done something before, how do you know whether other people are any good? One way is to use yourself as a basis for comparison. Novice scuba divers appear to anchor their estimates of OTHER beginner divers in their appraisals of their OWN scuba diving ability. #SSSP2025
Do really bad scuba divers think they’re better than they really are? Yes, they do! Dunning Kruger effect replicates in 40 novice scuba divers diving for the first time as part of a PADI DSD class
#SSSP2025
#SSSP2025
November 8, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Do really bad scuba divers think they’re better than they really are? Yes, they do! Dunning Kruger effect replicates in 40 novice scuba divers diving for the first time as part of a PADI DSD class
#SSSP2025
#SSSP2025
At 9:35am join UF social psychologists @nicholascoles.bsky.social and Annabel Dang for the latest in big team science - does gratitude work? How do you wrangle all those co-authors? Come find out! 2/n
November 8, 2025 at 12:14 PM
At 9:35am join UF social psychologists @nicholascoles.bsky.social and Annabel Dang for the latest in big team science - does gratitude work? How do you wrangle all those co-authors? Come find out! 2/n
Happy Halloween!!
November 1, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Happy Halloween!!
Omg my student is making her classmates do improv 🫠🤣
Jared: We’re in an aquarium
Hannah: You’re my estranged father
(Live replication of Woolley & Fishbach, 2022)
Jared: We’re in an aquarium
Hannah: You’re my estranged father
(Live replication of Woolley & Fishbach, 2022)
October 30, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Omg my student is making her classmates do improv 🫠🤣
Jared: We’re in an aquarium
Hannah: You’re my estranged father
(Live replication of Woolley & Fishbach, 2022)
Jared: We’re in an aquarium
Hannah: You’re my estranged father
(Live replication of Woolley & Fishbach, 2022)
So sad to hear we lost Judy DeLoache this week. Judy’s brilliance, her warmth, her humor, were grad school highlights. Whether it was at a dept party, on a sailboat, or in her home high in the Blue Ridge mountains, Judy made me feel like I mattered.
“Eyes open, minds open.” - JD
Sail on, Judy 💔
“Eyes open, minds open.” - JD
Sail on, Judy 💔
October 25, 2025 at 9:42 PM
So sad to hear we lost Judy DeLoache this week. Judy’s brilliance, her warmth, her humor, were grad school highlights. Whether it was at a dept party, on a sailboat, or in her home high in the Blue Ridge mountains, Judy made me feel like I mattered.
“Eyes open, minds open.” - JD
Sail on, Judy 💔
“Eyes open, minds open.” - JD
Sail on, Judy 💔
October 19, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Wonderful closing reception at SESP - great place to spend a great last night in Portugal with so many wonderful social psychologists!
October 19, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Wonderful closing reception at SESP - great place to spend a great last night in Portugal with so many wonderful social psychologists!
“Positive presence of Black characters on-screen is insufficient to change attitudes” - simply seeing more Black characters on TV doesn’t necessarily translate into thinking or feeling more positively towards Black people
- Ronda Lo, #SESP2025
- Ronda Lo, #SESP2025
October 18, 2025 at 11:05 AM
“Positive presence of Black characters on-screen is insufficient to change attitudes” - simply seeing more Black characters on TV doesn’t necessarily translate into thinking or feeling more positively towards Black people
- Ronda Lo, #SESP2025
- Ronda Lo, #SESP2025
This morning! 9:45am in Roma II
October 17, 2025 at 6:07 AM
This morning! 9:45am in Roma II
We are in Lisbon proper now for SESP - went on a walkaround for Bifanas, found a church, a castle, a sea…
October 16, 2025 at 4:31 PM
We are in Lisbon proper now for SESP - went on a walkaround for Bifanas, found a church, a castle, a sea…
October 16, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Ratings are relative - we judge a 5’ 7” woman to be “taller” than a 5’ 7” man. The same is true for social judgments - a woman who interrupts is seen as more assertive than a man.
Subjective ratings like this can “mask” stereotypes (stereotype = women are LESS assertive!)
Monica Biernat #PMIG2025
Subjective ratings like this can “mask” stereotypes (stereotype = women are LESS assertive!)
Monica Biernat #PMIG2025
October 16, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Ratings are relative - we judge a 5’ 7” woman to be “taller” than a 5’ 7” man. The same is true for social judgments - a woman who interrupts is seen as more assertive than a man.
Subjective ratings like this can “mask” stereotypes (stereotype = women are LESS assertive!)
Monica Biernat #PMIG2025
Subjective ratings like this can “mask” stereotypes (stereotype = women are LESS assertive!)
Monica Biernat #PMIG2025
Congrats to Monica Biernat, 2025 winner of the Ostrom Award for social cognition!
“Mel titled every talk he ever gave ‘Social Cognition’ because then he could talk about whatever he wanted” - MB
#PMIG2025
“Mel titled every talk he ever gave ‘Social Cognition’ because then he could talk about whatever he wanted” - MB
#PMIG2025
October 16, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Congrats to Monica Biernat, 2025 winner of the Ostrom Award for social cognition!
“Mel titled every talk he ever gave ‘Social Cognition’ because then he could talk about whatever he wanted” - MB
#PMIG2025
“Mel titled every talk he ever gave ‘Social Cognition’ because then he could talk about whatever he wanted” - MB
#PMIG2025
Helping grad school buddies stave off jet lag by walking all around Sintra…
October 16, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Helping grad school buddies stave off jet lag by walking all around Sintra…