
Frank T. McAndrew, Ph.D.
Psychologist/Professor/Essayist/Consultant

Frank McAndrew is the Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology at Knox College where he has twice received the Philip Green Wright-Lombard College Prize for Distinguished Teaching as well as the Caterpillar Faculty Achievement Award. He has also been nominated for the prestigious CASE U.S. Professor of the Year Award.
He is an elected Fellow of:
The Association for Psychological Science
The Society for Personality and Social Psychology
The Society of Experimental Social Psychology, The Midwestern Psychological Association (Charter Fellow)
Professor McAndrew is well-known as a purveyor of psychological science to lay audiences. His blog at Psychology Today Magazine and his other op-ed articles have attracted over twenty million readers, and many of his essays have been used in SAT prep courses or been included in textbooks and online teaching resources as models of engaging writing for students looking to improve their English language skills. One of his essays even appeared in the playbill of a play performed in London's West End at the Vaudeville Theater.
McAndrew serves as a resident expert for PsychWire, The Conversation, Canvas8, and the Foundation for Economic Education.
Frank is regarded as one of the key individuals in the history of environmental psychology. Over the course of his career his research has been featured in thousands of media outlets such as Time, The New Yorker, PBS, NPR, FOX News, the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and NBC's TODAY Show – and it has been shared on Twitter by journalists such as Arianna Huffington and lampooned on television by comedians Jay Leno & Conan O'Brien. He is a frequent guest on TV/Radio/Podcast news & talk programs, and he has lectured widely throughout the United States and in countries ranging alphabetically from Denmark to Tanzania.
CLICK HERE for personal information about Frank. You can follow him on Twitter @FTMcAndrew

*Identified in a survey of over 300 researchers in 2005.

Selected Television, Podcast, & Radio Appearances (Click on the link or image to see/hear the episode; click HERE for a more extensive list of appearances)
A TV show that has not
yet made it onto the air
(at least in part because of the pandemic)
How to tell if you're boring
-Global News Radio, May 20, 2022
Celebrity Gossip
Shot & Chaser Podcast
May 15, 2022
The Art of Small Talk
NewsTalk Radio
Dublin, Ireland
April 6, 2022
Evolutionary Psychology - March 28, 2022
(The Dissenter Podcast)
Britney Spears & California Conservatorships
-ABC TV News, Sacramento,
November 12, 2021
Encounters with Ghosts - October 20, 2021
The Upside of Gossip
- After the First Marriage Podcast,
August 18, 2021
"The Dog Detectives"
- A BBC (Wales) documentary
July 29, 2021
The Science of Gossip
In a discussion of the
TV show "Bridgerton"
- The Small Screen Science Podcast,
June 1, 2021
The Art of Gossip.
WNPR (Connecticut Public Radio (NPR))
April 5, 2022 & September 16, 2021
Creepiness (New Zealand TV)
-November 23, 2021
Why we like spooky places
- October 31, 2021
The benefits of gossip
- August 19, 2021
Why losing a dog hurts so much
- Voice America, August 12, 2021
"What Creeps Us Out?"
NewsTalk Radio
Dublin, Ireland
July 2, 2021
The Psychology of Gossip
BBC's "CrowdScience" - April 9, 2021
The Perks of Gossip
attn:, September 11, 2020
Witches - BYU Radio
October 28, 2019
Why do clowns creep us out?
Brut Media, October 9, 2019
Transient Global Amnesia - The 21st Show
NPR/Illinois Public Radio, October 9, 2019
Mass Shootings and the
Violence of Young Men
FOX News
(The Story with
Martha MacCallum)
August 6, 2019
What is Creepiness?
May 20, 2019
What do we know about
the Las Vegas gunman?
(Video has expired, but
HERE is McAndrew's clip)
ITV News, London
October 2, 2017
Heat and Violence
September 22, 2019
Gossip - NPR's "Innovation Hub," June 2, 2016
Creepiness
May 8, 2016
Creepiness, April 15, 2016
What is Creepiness?
Central Illinois Proud
April, 2016. This lengthy interview was divided into segments that were carried by ABC, CBS, & FOX TV
affiliates nationwide.
NBC's "Today Show" chose
McAndrew's creepiness
research as its "Trending Topic of the Day" in April of 2016, and it produced three different segments about this research.
This is a trailer from a
documentary titled
"The Real Dirt on Gossip."
It aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Company's
national program "Doc Zone" in October, 2012.
NBC's Today Show did a lengthy segment on McAndrew's gossip research on July 25, 2007.
McAndrew was a guest on the show, but the video is no longer available.
This is a trailer from "Doc Zone," a Canadian Broadcasting Company national program that aired
in October, 2012
Selected Essays
(Click HERE for a more extensive list of popular press articles)
Why Male and Female Friendships Are So Different - Psychology Today, April 4, 2022
How to tell that you're boring - Psychology Today, April 1, 2022
The factor that can predict how long you'll live - Your Tango Magazine, March 26, 2022
Why do old people hate new music? - Big Think, November 29, 2021
Gossip is a social skill - not a character flaw - Big Think, November 19, 2021
Why intelligent men may not be as appealing as we thought
- Psychology Today, November 9, 2021
Why certain people see Ghosts while others don't - Psychology Today, October 12, 2021
There's no place like home for the holidays -- and that's what makes the pandemic's winter surge so devastating. - The Conversation, December 10, 2020
(also in The Everett Daily Herald (Washington), The Columbia Missourian, The Marin Independent Journal (Ohio), & Business Mirror)
Decoding the Freudian Symbolism in Your Dreams - The Minds Journal, October 1, 2020
Why Losing a Dog can be so Devastating
- The Next Truth: Young People Science, September/October 2020
Why You Underestimate How Much Other People Like You
- The Minds Journal, September 24, 2020
Is Your Personality Stressing You Out?
- The Minds Journal, September 18, 2020
How the God You Worship Influences the Ghosts You See
- The Next Truth, August 1, 2020
Why face masks give us the creeps - Psychology Today, June 1, 2020
Why we love big, blood-curdling screams
- Big Think, Time Magazine, Ladders, Discover Magazine, The Conversation, Science 2.0, The Apopka Voice, LiveScience, & many other media outlets, October, 2019.
Fear of clowns explained by a psychologist - Mic, October 28, 2019
Why haunted Houses Terrify Us - Fast Company, October 23, 2019
Houses of Horror - Aeon Magazine, October 21, 2019
Why losing a dog can be harder than losing a relative or friend - RawStory, October 4, 2019
Why old people hate new music -Psychology Today, October 1, 2019
Could a lack of intellectual humility be at the root of what ails America? - Blavity, September 27, 2019
"The Best Days of Our Lives?" An essay about high school included in the playbill for Groan Ups, which ran in London’s Vaudeville Theatre
- opened September 20, 2019