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CURRENT PROJECTS IN THE LAB

 

Why Boredom is Interesting


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We may not enjoy it, but boredom gives us important feedback about our lives. It tells us whether we want to and are able to focus on what we're doing. According to the Meaning and Attentional Components (MAC) model of boredom, we feel bored when we can't successfully engage our attention in meaningful activities. Boredom is thus the result of (a) an attentional component, or mismatches between cognitive demands and available mental resources and (b) a meaning component, or mismatches between activities and valued goals (or the absence of valued goals altogether). 

In this sense, boredom is neither good nor bad; rather it's an important signal that we're not meaningfully engaged in our lives. 
​
Papers
  1. Westgate, E.C., & Wilson, T.D. (2018). Boring thoughts and bored minds: The MAC model of  boredom and cognitive engagement. Psychological Review, 125, 689-713.​
  2. Westgate, E.C., & Steidle, B. (2020). Lost by definition: Why boredom matters for psychology and society. Social & Personality Psychology Compass.
  3. Pfattheicher, S, Lazarević, L.B., Westgate, E.C., & Schindler, S. (2020). On the relation of boredom and sadistic aggression. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology.
  4. ​Westgate, E.C. (2020). Why Boredom is Interesting. Current Directions in Psychological Science.
  • ​Interested in teaching about emotion? Check out this APS Observer column for ideas on using our paper to teach methods and emotion!
Other Writing & Artwork
  1. Boring Exhibition. Art exhibit by UK Artist Dawn Parsonage.
  2. Westgate, E.C. (April 2019). Are we bored yet? A lifespan perspective on the MAC model of boredom and cognitive engagement. International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course (LIFE) Newsletter, Spring 2019.
  3. The Conversation - 6 Things You Can Do to Cope with Boredom at a Time of Social Distancing (March 27, 2020)​
 Popular Press (Selected)
  1. The New York Times - The Boredom Economy (Feb 20, 2021) 
  2. The Washington Post - These are Boom Times for Boredom and the Researchers Who Study It (March 28, 2020)
  3. Wired - This Pandemic is Perilously Boring (March 31, 2020)
  4. APA Speaking of Psychology - The Most Boring Podcast Ever (April 16, 2020)​
  5. 99% Invisible - The Natural Experiment  (May 5, 2020)
  6. The New Yorker - What Does Boredom Do To Us - And For Us? (August 20, 2020)
 

The Psychologically Rich Life


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What kind of life do people want? In psychology, a good life has typically been conceptualized in terms of either a happy or meaningful life. We propose that psychological richness is another, neglected aspect of what people consider a good life.

Unlike happy or meaningful lives, psychologically rich lives are best characterized by a variety of interesting and perspective-changing experiences. According to our Triad Model,  happiness, meaning, and psychological richness are related but distinct and desirable aspects of a good life, with unique causes and consequences. Around 6-17% of people around the world report they would choose a psychologically rich life at the expense of a happy or meaningful life, and approximately a third say that undoing the most regretted event of their lives would have made their lives psychologically richer. People leading psychologically rich lives tend to be more curious, pursue challenging experiences, and lean more politically liberal. Our work provides a foundation for the study of psychological richness as another dimension of a good life, moving us beyond the dichotomy of hedonic versus eudaimonic well-being.

How psychologically "rich" is your life? Take our test and find out!
Papers
  1. Oishi, S., & Westgate, E.C. (in press). A psychologically rich life: Beyond happiness and meaning. Psychological Review.
  2. Oishi, S., Choi, H., Galinha, I., Ishii, K., Komiya, A., Koo, M., Luhmann, M., Scollon, C., Shin, J., Suh, E., Vittersø, J., Heintzelman, S., Kushlev, K., Westgate, E.C., Buttrick, N., Tucker, J., Ebersole, C.R., Axt, J., Gilbert, E., Ng, B.W., Kurtz, J., & Besser, L.L. (2020). Happiness, Meaning, and Psychological Richness. Affective Science. 
  3. Oishi, S., Choi, H., Buttrick, N., Heintzelman, S., Kushlev, K., Westgate, E.C., Tucker, J., Ebersole, C., Axt, J., Gilbert, E., Ng, B.W., & Besser, L.L. (2019). The Psychologically Rich Life Questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality.
  4. Westgate, E.C., & Oishi, S. (2020). Art, music, and literature: Do the humanities make our lives happier, richer, and more meaningful? In J.Pawelski & L. Tay (Ed.), Handbook of Positive Psychology on the Arts and Humanities: Theory and Research. Oxford University Press.​
Posters
  1. Lee, S.B., Westgate, E.C., & Libby, L.K. (2020). Good Art, Bad Artists: Do mixed emotions improve decision-making? Poster presented at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Popular Press
  1. Scientific American -  In Defense of the Psychologically Rich Life (August 18, 2020)​
 

"Just thinking" isn't fun


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When we ask people to entertain themselves with their thoughts in an empty room, with no distractions, many people don’t enjoy it very much. Most people report enjoying external activities much more, and 67% of men - and 25% of women - will even choose to give themselves an electric shock rather than just think. To enjoy intentionally thinking for pleasure, people may need both the ability to think and the desire to to do it. 

Why don't people enjoy thinking? One reason may be that it's cognitively demanding. In an experience sampling study, we found that unintended reverie was less frequent but more positive and enjoyable than intentional reverie. Could this be because generating thoughts is hard? To find out, we conducted a series of lab studies, where we asked people to think for pleasure and reminded them of the thought topics they had chosen earlier. These reminders made it less difficult to concentrate and reduced mind-wandering. As a result, people enjoyed thinking more.​
 Papers
  1. Wilson, T.D., Reinhard, D., Westgate, E.C., Gilbert, D., Ellerbeck, N., Hahn, C., Brown, C., & Shaked, A. (2014). Just Think: The Challenges of the Disengaged Mind. Science, 345, 75-77. 
  2. Westgate, E. C., Wilson, T. D., & Gilbert, D. (2017). With a Little Help for Our Thoughts: Making It Easier to Think for Pleasure. Emotion, 17, 828-839.
  3. Alahmadi, S., Buttrick, N., Gilbert, D.T., Hardin, A., Westgate, E.C.,. & Wilson, T.D.* (2017). You Can Do It If You Really Try: The Effects of Motivation on Enjoying One’s Own Thoughts.​ Motivation and Emotion, 41, 545-561. 
  4. ​Wilson, T.D., Westgate, E.C., Buttrick, N.B., & Gilbert, D.T. (2019). The Mind is Its Own Place: The Difficulties and Benefits of Thinking for Pleasure. In J.M. Olson (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. 
  5. Westgate, E.C., Wilson, T.D., Buttrick, N.R., Furrer, R.,  & Gilbert, D.T. (2021). What makes thinking for pleasure pleasurable? Emotion.
  6. Raza, S. Westgate, E.C., Buttrick, N.B., Heintzelman, S., Furrer, R.+, Gilbert, D.T., Libby,
    L.K., & Wilson, T.D. (2021). A Trade-Off Model of Intentional Thinking for
    Pleasure.
     Emotion.

Popular Press (Selected)
  1. The New York Times - Daydreaming Can Be Good For You (April 10, 2021)
  2. Science Friday - Why is Daydreaming Difficult for Grown-ups? (March 12, 2021)
  3. The Atlantic - People Prefer Electric Shocks to Being Alone With Their Thoughts (July 3, 2014)
  4. The New York Times - No Time to Think (July 30, 2014)
  5. Science Friday - What's So Bad About Being Alone With Your Thoughts? ​(July 11, 2014)​
 

"Mere" Categorization is Rewarding


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Do people find the act of categorization meaningful? The prevalence of common pastimes such as birdwatching, beachcombing, and mushroom hunting suggest they do. If categorization helps make sense of the world around us, it may act as a chronic source of meaning, organizing people’s experience from the most basic levels (e.g., vision) all the way up through higher-order cognition (e.g., stereotyping and prejudice). We are experimentally testing whether people find the act of categorization to be more meaningful (and enjoyable) than comparably demanding cognitive activities. 
Funding
  1. SPSP Small Research Grant, Society of Personality & Social Psychology 
    Project (PI): Is the mere act of categorization inherently meaningful?​
Posters
  1. Westgate, E.C., Losee, J., & Swenson, E. (2020). “Mere” Categorization: The mental act of categorization is inherently rewarding. Poster presented at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, New Orleans, Louisiana.
 

Procrastination can be productive


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When people are bored, they often choose to do something else. Voila - procrastination! But is procrastinating always bad? Many students report productive procrastination, such as doing trivial homework instead of studying for an urgent upcoming test. We've found that their grades are just as good as non-procrastinators', and they have fewer alcohol problems than students who procrastinate in traditional ways. ​In a current project, we are tracking students' productive (and unproductive procrastination) using daily diaries. 
Papers
  1. Westgate, E. C., Wormington, S.V., Oleson, K.,C. & Lindgren, K.P. (2016). Productive Procrastination: Academic Procrastination Style Predicts Academic and Alcohol Outcomes. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 47, 124-135. ​
Posters
  1. Wormington, S.V., Westgate, E.C., & Oleson, K.C. (2014). Academically productive procrastination: Links to unique motivations and academic consequences. Poster presented at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Austin, Texas.
  2. Westgate, E.C., Wormington, S.V., Oleson, K.C., & Lindgren, K.P. (2013). Better late than never? The relationship between adaptive and maladaptive procrastination styles, alcohol use, and academic performance. Poster presented at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 
  3. Wormington, S.V., Westgate, E. C., & Oleson, K.C. (2013). How do college students 
    approach difficult academic tasks? A qualitative investigation.
    Poster presented at the 
    2013 Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, New 
    Orleans, Louisiana. 
  4. Wormington, S., Westgate, E., Call, A., Harati, A., Moshontz, H. & Oleson, K. (2011). A  person- centered investigation of academically-productive procrastination: Relations  to self-doubt, concern with performance, and mastery-approach goals. Poster presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Antonio, Texas.
 

Implicit LGBT Attitudes


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How do people feel about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people? Recent societal changes suggest public attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people may be becoming more positive. But are people's feelings really changing, or are they just more reluctant to admit bias? We study attitudes towards LGBT people using implicit measures, which are less affected by self-presentation concerns. For instance, we've found that people's attitudes towards lesbian and gay people became more positive from 2006-2013. Implicit bias dropped by 13%, and explicit bias by 26%, over this time period. 

We are currently in the process of designing and adding 
a new transgender IAT to Project Implicit in hopes of tracking cultural attitude change over the next decade. 
Papers
  1. Westgate, E.C., Riskind, R. G., & Nosek, B. (2015). Implicit preferences for straight people over lesbian and gay people decreased from 2006-2013. Collabra Open Access, 1, Art.1. 
  2. Inbar, Y., Westgate, E.C., Nosek, B.A., & Pizarro, D. (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, 7, 420-427. 
  3. Axt, J.A., Conway, M.A., Westgate, E.C., & Buttrick, N.B. (2020). Implicit transgender attitudes independently predict gender and transgender-related beliefs. Personality and
    Social Psychology Bulletin.

Popular Press
  1. Pacific Standard - Anti-Gay Bias is Even Diminishing on an Unconscious Level (July 13, 2015)
  2. The New York Times - Bias Against Gay People is Even Decreasing on an​ Unconscious Level (July 30, 2015)
 

Why Storms are Exciting


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Hurricanes are dangerous. Yet, many people eagerly track hurricanes and other storms, throw hurricane parties, and even head down to the beach to witness landfall in person. Why do people do this? What is it about hurricanes that makes them so exciting, at least to some? We are exploring the reasons why dangerous storms can spur feelings of interest and excitement, and what the consequences of those positive feelings are.

Posters
  1. El Helou, G., Westgate, E.C., & Lin, Y.  (2021). When Disasters are Exciting: Fun vs Scary
    Perceptions of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
    Poster presented at the 2021 Annual Meeting of
    the Society of Southeastern Social Psychologists.
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  • PEOPLE
    • ERIN WESTGATE
    • GRADUATE STUDENTS
    • RESEARCH ASSISTANTS
    • LAB ALUMNI
  • RESEARCH
  • PUBLICATIONS
    • NEWS
    • MEDIA COVERAGE
    • PHOTOS
  • RESOURCES
  • PARTICIPATE
  • JOIN THE LAB