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 college's 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 and the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, and he is a Charter Fellow of the Midwestern Psychological Association.
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 has even appeared in the program of a play performed in London's West End at the Vaudeville Theater. McAndrew also serves as an expert contributor for PsychWire and The Conversation.
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 ridiculed 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.
You can follow Frank 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)
"The Dog Detectives"
- A BBC documentary
airing on July 29, 2021
The Science of Gossip
In a discussion of the
TV show "Bridgerton"
- The Small Screen Science Podcast,
June 1, 2021
The Perks of Gossip
attn,September 11, 2020
"What Creeps Us Out?"
NewsTalk Radio
Dublin, Ireland
July 2, 2021
The Psychology of Gossip
BBC's "CrowdScience" - April 9, 2021
An Improbable Research Podcast
episode devoted to McAndrew's
creepiness research, May 2, 2020
Why do clowns creep us out?
Brut Media, October 9, 2019
Heat and Violence
September 22, 2019
Witches - BYU Radio
October 28, 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
Alpha males, precarious
manhood, and the violence of young men Lecture at the
C. G. Jung Institute
Santa Fe, NM
September 16, 2016
Gossip - NPR's "Innovation Hub," June 2, 2016
Creepiness
May 8, 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.
Creepiness, April 15, 2016
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)
Gossip is a social skill - not a character flaw. The Independent (Uganda), July 20, 2021
Why we can't stop thinking about "what might have been"
- Psychology Today, April 9, 2021
Why does Tuesday have less "Personality" than other days of the week?
- Psychology Today, January 19, 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 Old People Hate New Music - Australian Broadcasting Corporation, December 17, 2019
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
Could a lack of intellectual humility be at the root of what ails America? - Blavity, September 27, 2019
Curious Kids: Why do old people hate new music? - The Conversation, The Associated
Press, Quartz, ActivelyLearn.com, Curiosity.com, Livewire, & many other media
outlets - September 26, 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
The psychology behind why clowns creep us out - CNN, Quartz, The Conversation, Popular
Science, RTL TV, WKRC TV, Snopes.com, Inverse, The Wire, & The Oneonta Daily Star;
also appeared in more than three dozen other news outlets between September 4-10, 2019
Politicians don't seem to laugh at themselves as much anymore
- The Conversation; also in Intellectual Takeout, Wall Street Window, alternet, Skagit Valley
Herald, SFGate, & The Utica College Center of Public Affairs and Election Research
- August 21-22, 2019
Could the lack of humility be at the root of what ails America?
- Salon, June 1, 2019 (also in Libertarian Republic)
America is facing an intellectual humility crisis - Newsweek - May 24, 2019
(also appeared in more than three dozen other news outlets)
My experience with Transient Global Amnesia (TGA)
- Psychology Today, February 24, 2019
When do personality traits predict behavior? - Psychology Today, October 2, 2018
Why "Nigerian Prince" Scams Continue to Dupe Us - Salon, August 18, 2018
Is Polygamy a Better Deal for Men or for Women? - Psychology Today, July 23, 2018
Your Sense of Humor Can Serve as "Social Radar"
- Psychology Today, April 28, 2018
Why the Death of a Dog Hurts so Much - Quartz, April 26, 2018
How the God You Worship Influences the Ghosts You See - The Big Think, April 25, 2018
Why Pretty Girls Get Bullied - Psychology Today Magazine, April 22, 2018
Why men will always be more disgusting than women - Psychology Today, January 9, 2018
The science behind why there's no place like home for the holidays
- The Chicago Tribune, December 22, 2017
Beauty cues: Four traits men unknowingly seek in women - Psychology Today Magazine,
- November/December 2017, Vol. 50, #6, pp. 42-43 - also in Questia & Your Tango
Why some people see ghosts and other paranormal presence
- Your Tango Magazine, October 31, 2017
How the God you worship influences the ghosts you see - Raw Story, October 26, 2017
Creeped out by clowns? This might be why - CNN, September 8, 2017
How to avoid creeping women out - Psychology Today, July 4, 2017
For restaurants looking to boost profits, it's often about everything but the food
- The Conversation, April 24, 2017 (also in The New Influencer & Hospitality Magazine)
Communicating with the Dead: Mediums, Seances, Ouija Boards
-Psychology Today, April 12, 2017
Why losing a dog can be harder than losing a relative or friend
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation, March 15, 2017 (also in MamaMia & The Observer)
Why you will always be haunted by high school - Quartz, March 3, 2017
The surprising factor that can predict your life span - Your Tango Magazine, January 5, 2017
The perils of a life in isolation - Intellectual Takeout, November 17, 2016
Why clowns creep us out - The Washington Post, October 27, 2016
The psychology behind why clowns creep us out - Time Magazine, September 29, 2016
- also in PBS Newshour, Quartz, Scientific American, Salon, The Daily Mail,
The New Republic, Yahoo News, & others
Here's why you're terrified of creepy clowns
- The Daily Beast, September 28, 2016 (also in The Conversation)
Happiness doesn't last, and here's why that's OK
- CNN, August 25, 2016 (also in Reliawire)
Don't try to be happy. We're programmed to be dissatisfied
- The Guardian, August 17, 2016 (also in The Sydney Morning Herald)
Why you shouldn't want to always be happy - Time Magazine, August 12, 2016
- also in IFL Science, The Conversation, & Intellectual Takeout
Why It Is So Easy To Hate Each Other - Psychology Today, July 14, 2016
The evolutionary psychology behind mass shootings - CNN, July 8, 2016
Gossip in your office probably does more good than harm - HRZone, June 10, 2016
This is why you're still thinking about high school - The Washington Post, June 6, 2016 (also in Raw Story)
Why are high school memories burned into our brains? - The Guardian, June 2, 2016 (also in Business Insider)
How gossip can help you - Time Magazine, January 21, 2016
Gossip as a social skill - The New Republic, January 20, 2016
The making of a murderer (mass shootings) - The Daily Mail, January 4, 2016
Why are shooters invariably young men? - Newsweek, December 7, 2015
You should know how the male brain reacts to handling a gun
- The Huffington Post, December 4, 2015 (also in The Conversation)
"Mail Order Brides" Still Exist - Psychology Today, November 24, 2015
Why do haunted houses creep us out? - Newsweek, October 31, 2015 (also in Mashable)
This is why haunted houses creep us out - Time Magazine, October 30, 2015
- also in LiveScience, Business Insider, Raw Story, The Conversation, & others
Home is Where the Heart Is, But Where is "Home"? -Psychology Today, August 3, 2015
Nothing says "Old Dude" like getting a motorcycle - Psychology Today, July 8, 2015
Can gossip be good? - Scientific American Mind Magazine,
- October/November, 2008, pp. 26-33 (cover story)
Where McAndrew's Research Is Published
Psychology
Teacher
Network
