Research
in Evolutionary Psychology at Knox College:
Frank T. McAndrew,
Ph.D.
Evolutionary
Psychology is
based upon the assumption that
much of human behavior is a product of behavioral predispositions that
were shaped by the process of natural selection in our ancestral
environments. For a more complete description of the topics
studied by evolutionary psychologists, check
out the web page
for my course on
Evolution
and Human Behavior.
The
major journals in the field are Evolution
and Human Behavior, Evolutionary
Psychology, and Human
Nature. I am particularly interested in the
evolution of
human
social behaviors such as gossip,
altruism, and nonverbal communication,
and I have also studied how the strategies people
use
when choosing names for their children is influenced by
evolutionary adaptions. We
are currently conducting a series of laboratory experiments on "costly
altruism." Specifically, we are interested in being able to
predict
which individuals will be likely to step up and perform
self-sacrificial activities for the good of a group, and whether this
short-term costly behavior results in long-term positive outcomes for
the altruist. The people involved in this research include
Carin
Perilloux, a Knox College graduate who is currently a Ph.D.
student in David
Buss's evolutionary psychology lab
at the University of Texas
at Austin, and several current or recent Knox
students: Linda Kelahan, Nicole Morgan, & Tim Rairdon.
Other faculty members at Knox
who
occasionally get involved with the research of evolutionary psychology
students include Heather
Hoffmann and Tim
Kasser in psychology, and Jim
Mountjoy and Jennifer
Templeton in biology. A list of
presentations and publications generated by our research group over the
past 20 years or so follows; most of these studies include
Knox
College students as co-authors. For links to other
web sites
related to evolutionary psychology, scroll down to the bottom of this
page.
PUBLICATIONS
McAndrew,
F. T. (2008). Can gossip be good? Scientific American
Mind Magazine, October/November, 32-39.
McAndrew, F. T. (forthcoming). Why is Gossip so
Irresistible? The
Evolutionary Roots of our Wagging Tongues. In J. Barkow and
P.
Hejl (Eds.), You Can't
Turn It Off: Media, Mind, Gossip, and
Evolution. New York: Oxford University
Press.
McAndrew,
F. T. (In Review). The selfish hero? A study of the
individual benefits of self-sacrificial behavior by members of small
groups. Small
Group Research,
De
Backer, C., Nelissen, M., Vyncke, P., Braeckman, J., &
McAndrew, F.
T. (2007). Celebrities:
From teachers to
friends. A
test of two hypotheses on the adaptiveness of celebrity
gossip.
Human Nature,
18, 334-354.
Miller,
S.S., Hoffmann, H., & Mustanski, B. (2007). Fluctuating
Asymmetry
and Sexual Orientation in Men and Women. Archives of Sexual Behavior,
36 (6),
McAndrew,
F. T., Bell, E. K., & Garcia, C. M. (2007).
Who do
we tell, and whom do we tell on? Gossip as a strategy for status
enhancement. Journal
of Applied Social Psychology, 37, 1562-1577.
[This research, with a slightly different title, was also
presented at the Annual Meeting
of the Human Behavior
and
Evolution Society, Austin, Texas (June, 2005).]
McAndrew,
F. T. (2006).
Female infidelity and paternal uncertainty: Evolutionary perspectives
on male anti-cuckoldry tactics. A review of a book by the
same
title by S. M. Platek & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), Cambridge
University Press. The
Journal of Mind and Behavior, 27, 367-371.
Turner,
S. L., & McAndrew, F. T. (2006). A
Laboratory Simulation of Parental Investment Decisions: The Role of
Future Reproductive Opportunity and Offspring Quality in Determining
Levels of Parental Investment. Evolutionary Psychology,
4,
197-207.
[This research, with a slightly different title, was also
presented at the Annual Meeting
of the Human Behavior
and
Evolution Society, Berlin, Germany (July, 2004).]
Klinesmith,
J., Kasser, T., & McAndrew, F. T. (2006). Guns,
testosterone,
and aggression: A test of a mediational model.
Psychological
Science, 17, 568-571.
Minervini,
B. P., & McAndrew, F. T.
(2006).
The mating strategies and mate preferences of mail order brides. Cross-Cultural
Research, 40, 111-129.
(Also a paper
presented at the Annual Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution
Society, Berlin, Germany, July, 2004).
McAndrew,
F. T. (2003). Evolution
and the problem of altruism: Current and historical perspectives.
In S. Shohov (Ed.), Advances
in Psychology Research, Volume 27
(pp.
277-288) Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers
McAndrew,
F. T. (2002). New
evolutionary perspectives on altruism: Multilevel selection and costly
signaling theories. Current
Directions in Psychological
Science,
11, 79-82.
McAndrew,
F.T., King, J.C., & Honoroff, L.R.
(2002). A Sociobiological
Analysis of
Namesaking Patterns in 322 American Families. Journal of
Applied
Social Psychology, 32, 851-864.
McAndrew,
F.T., & Milenkovic, M.A. (2002) Of
tabloids and family secrets: The evolutionary
psychology of gossip, 32, 1064-1082.. Journal of Applied
Social
Psychology, 32,
Mountjoy,
D. J., & Leger, D. W.
(2001). Vireo song
repertoires and migratory distance: three sexual selection hypotheses
fail to explain the correlation. Behavioral Ecology
12:98-102.
Kasser,
T., & Sharma, Y. S. (1999). Reproductive freedom, educational
equality, and females' preference for resource-acquisition
characteristics in mates. Psychological
Science, 10, 374-377.
Johnson,
J.L., McAndrew, F.T., & Harris,
P.B.(1991). Sociobiology and the naming of adopted and natural
children. Ethology and
Sociobiology, 12, 365-375.
PRESENTATIONS
McAndrew, F. T. (2008,
July).
Evolutionary perspectives on populafr culture.
Invited lecture at the University of
Chicago, Chicago, IL.
McAndrew, F. T. (2008,
March).
The Evolutionary Psychology of Gossip. Invited
presentation
at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida.
Kelahan, L., Hoffmann, H., & Kohl, J. V (November, 2007).
Androstenol/androsterone may condition a human female hormonal
effect/behavioral affect. Society
for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, Indianapolis, IN.
(This research was also presented at the meeting of The Association for Chemoreception
Sciences in Sarasota Florida, April, 2007).
McAndrew,
F. T. (2007, September). Information Age Media and Stone Age Minds: How
the Entertainment Industry Succeeds by Pressing the Right Buttons in
Our
Hunter-Gatherer Brains. Invited Keynote Address at
the
first annual IDeoGRAMS
Conference 2007: Contemporary Media. Leicester,
England.
Templeton, J.J.,
Christensen, J.M., & Fink, S (2006). Searching for
the search image in the avian brain. International Society for
Behavioral Ecology (ISBE) meetings, Tours, France.
McAndrew,
F. T. (2006, October). The evolutionary psychology of gossip. Invited
presentation at the University of Texas at Austin.
McAndrew,
F. T. (2006, October). The evolutionary psychology of gossip. Invited
presentation at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Franciskovich,S.,
J., & McAndrew, F. T. (2006, June).
Birth order, personality,
and conformity to parental expectations in the choice of a long-term
mate. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Human
Behavior
and
Evolution Society, Phildelphia.
McAndrew,
F. T. (2005,
February). Gossip as entertainment: Why does bad news feel so good?
Invited Presentation at a conference on Media and Universals 2005
–
Focus on Film and Print, Universitat Siegen, Siegen,
Germany.
McAndrew,
F. T. (2005, October). The Evolutionary Psychology of
Gossip.
Invited Presentation at Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois.
McAndrew,
F. T. (2004, November). The Evolutionary Psychology of
Gossip.
Invited Presentation at Carl Sandburg College, Galesburg, Illinois.
McAndrew,
F. T. (2004, December). The Evolutionary Psychology of
Gossip.
Invited Presentation at Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois.
McAndrew, F. T. (2004, July). Why is Gossip so
Irresistible? Explorations in the Evolutionary Psychology of Gossip.
Invited paper presented at a symposium of the Human Behavior and
Evolution Society, Berlin, Germany.
McAndrew,
F. T. (2003, February). The
evolutionary
psychology of gossip. Invited colloquia presented at Colby College,
Waterville, Maine.
McAndrew,
F. T. (2001, September). The evolutionary
psychology of gossip. Invited colloquia presented at Binghamton
University (SUNY)
McAndrew,
F. T. (2001, November). The evolutionary
psychology of gossip. Invited colloquia presented at the University of
New Mexico
(Albuquerque).
McAndrew,
F.T., Turner, S., Fiedeldey, A.C., &
Sharma, Y. (1998, July) Are
Human Environmental Preferences Universal?
Evidence from a Cross-Cultural Study of Preferences for Visual and
Non-Visual Features of Outdoor Environments. Paper presented
at the
annual meeting of The Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Davis, CA. Click here for the tables.
McAndrew,
F.T.(1996, September). Evolutionary
Psychology and the Naming of Children. Keynote address delivered at the
Annual Congress of the
Psychological Society of South Africa,
Johannesburg.
McAndrew,
F.T., and King, J.C.(1995, June). Birth
Order and the Naming of Children: An Examination of Naming as a
Strategy of Parental Investment. Paper presented at the meeting of the
Human Behavior and
Evolution Society, Santa Barbara, CA.
McAndrew,
F.T.(1992, March). The Evolution of Human
Environmental Preferences. Invited colloqium presented at Grinnell
College, Grinnell, Iowa.
McAndrew,
F.T.(1989, November). Why apes have
eyebrows: Evolution and human nonverbal communication. Invited
colloqium presented at the University of Scranton, Scranton,
Pennsylvania.
Links to other
Evolutionary
Psychology Web
Sites:
Center for
Evolutionary Psychology
The Complete
Works of Charles Darwin Online
The
David Buss
Evolutionary Psychology Lab at the University of Texas at Austin
Evolution
versus Creationism
The
Genographic Project: Early Human Migration Routes
Human Behavior and Evolution
Society
Human Nature Daily
Review
Institute
of Cognition
and Culture
International
Society for Human Ethology
New
England Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology
Archaeologyinfo.com
Human
Evolution
Resources
for Learning about Evolutionary Psychology (University of Plymouth, UK)
Places
to Study Evolutionary Psychology
More Links to
Evolutionary Sites
