Dr. Erin Westgate, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Social Psychology, researching boredom, interest, and thinking (and why we're so bad at it)

Research Expertise

social psychology
social cognition
emotion
Psychiatry and Mental health
Clinical Psychology
Toxicology
Health (social science)
Sociology and Political Science
Linguistics and Language
Language and Linguistics
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Developmental Neuroscience
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Education
Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty
Applied Psychology
Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology

About

**Dr. Erin Westgate** (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Florida, where she studies boredom, interest, and why some thoughts are more engaging than others. ​She received her PhD in social psychology from the University of Virginia in 2018, and her undergraduate degree from Reed College. Much of her research has been on the conditions under which people enjoy or do not enjoy their own thoughts. She has extended that work to the larger question of why people become bored, developing a new model of boredom that explains what boredom is, why we experience it, and what happens when we do.  As part of this, she is investigating our desire for a life full of interesting, perspective-changing experiences - or a “psychologically rich” life.

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Publications

Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science
Science
2015
Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind
Science
2014
Boring thoughts and bored minds: The MAC model of boredom and cognitive engagement.
Psychological Review
2018
I drink therefore I am: Validating alcohol-related implicit association tests.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors
2013
Understanding The Consumer Behaviour During COVID-19 Pandemic
Unknown Venue
2021
LF-copying without LF
Lingua
2015
Correction to Supporting Information for Psychological Science Accelerator Self-Determination Theory Collaboration, A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
2022
Observers penalize decision makers whose risk preferences are unaffected by loss–gain framing.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
2022
Pandemic boredom: Little evidence that lockdown-related boredom affects risky public health behaviors across 116 countries
Unknown Venue
2021
The Origins of Boredom
Unknown Venue
2021
Art, Music, and Literature: Do the Humanities Make Our Lives Richer, Happier, and More Meaningful?
The Oxford Handbook of the Positive Humanities
2022
Stereotype Threat in Black College Students Across Many Operationalizations
Unknown Venue
2019
I enjoy hurting my classmates: On the relation of boredom and sadism in schools
Journal of School Psychology
2023
19. FEAR OF UNFULFILLED DESIRES
Happiness and Goodness
2015
PSACR: The Psychological Science Accelerator's COVID-19 Rapid-Response Project
Unknown Venue
2020
Are We Bored Yet? A Lifespan Perspective on the MAC Model of Boredom and Cognitive Engagement
Unknown Venue
2019
From electric shocks to the electoral college: How boredom steers moral behavior
Unknown Venue
2021
What to do with our days Out of My Skull: The Psychology of Boredom James Danckert and John D. Eastwood Harvard University Press, 2020. 288 pp.
Science
2020
By Choice or By Chance? Intentional Reverie is Real but Rare
Unknown Venue
2018
Alcohol Does Not Increase Slow Wave Sleep
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research
2012
A Rocky Issue: The Effects of Humor on Learning and Interest in an Educational Context
Unknown Venue
2018
Reading Literary Fiction Is Associated With a More Complex Worldview
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
2022
A little help from my friends: Lack of social interaction predicts greater boredom during the COVID‐19 pandemic
Social and Personality Psychology Compass
2023
A little help from my friends: Lack of social interaction predicts greater boredom during the COVID-19 pandemic
Unknown Venue
2023
Pandemic boredom: Little evidence that lockdown-related boredom affects risky public health behaviors across 116 countries.
Emotion
2023
Cognitive mechanisms underlying subjective value of past and future events: Modeling systematic reversals of temporal value asymmetry.
Decision
2023
What Underlies the Opposition to Trans-Inclusive Policies? The Role of Concerns About Male Violence Versus Attitudes Toward Trans People
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
2022
A psychologically rich life: Beyond happiness and meaning.
Psychological Review
2022
A trade-off model of intentional thinking for pleasure.
Emotion
2022
On the relation of boredom and sadistic aggression.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
2021
What makes thinking for pleasure pleasurable?
Emotion
2021
I enjoy hurting my classmates: On the relation of boredom and sadism in schools
Unknown Venue
2021
What Makes Thinking for Pleasure Pleasurable?
Unknown Venue
2020
Lost by definition: Why boredom matters for psychology and society
Social and Personality Psychology Compass
2020
Implicit Transgender Attitudes Independently Predict Beliefs About Gender and Transgender People
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
2020
Happiness, Meaning, and Psychological Richness
Affective Science
2020
Art, music, and literature: Do the humanities make our lives richer, happier, and more meaningful?
Unknown Venue
2020
Why Boredom Is Interesting
Current Directions in Psychological Science
2019
The psychologically rich life questionnaire
Journal of Research in Personality
2019
The mind is its own place: The difficulties and benefits of thinking for pleasure
Advances in Experimental Social Psychology
2019
You can do it if you really try: The effects of motivation on thinking for pleasure
Motivation and Emotion
2017
With a little help for our thoughts: Making it easier to think for pleasure.
Emotion
2017
Productive procrastination: academic procrastination style predicts academic and alcohol outcomes
Journal of Applied Social Psychology
2016
Can a Naturally Occurring Pathogen Threat Change Social Attitudes? Evaluations of Gay Men and Lesbians During the 2014 Ebola Epidemic
Social Psychological and Personality Science
2016
Identity, influence, and intervention: The roles of social media in alcohol use
Current Opinion in Psychology
2016
Attempted Training of Alcohol Approach and Drinking Identity Associations in US Undergraduate Drinkers: Null Results from Two Studies
PLOS ONE
2015
Implicit Preferences for Straight People over Lesbian Women and Gay Men Weakened from 2006 to 2013
Collabra
2015
Would you fund this movie? A reply to Fox et al. (2014)
Frontiers in Psychology
2014
“I Will Take a Shot for Every ‘Like’ I Get on This Status”: Posting Alcohol-Related Facebook Content Is Linked to Drinking Outcomes
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs
2014
Self-Control and Implicit Drinking Identity as Predictors of Alcohol Consumption, Problems, and Cravings
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs
2014
Implicit drinking identity: Drinker+me associations predict college student drinking consistently
Addictive Behaviors
2013
Pick your poison: Stimuli selection in alcohol-related implicit measures
Addictive Behaviors
2012
Implicit transgender attitudes independently predict beliefs about gender and transgender people
Unknown Venue
2020

Education

University of Virginia

Ph.D., Psychology

Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America

Reed College

B.A., Psychology / May, 2010

Portland, Oregon, United States of America

Experience

University of Florida

Assistant Professor / 2019Present

The Ohio State University

Postdoctoral Researcher / 20182019

Links & Social Media

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