Dr. Frank McAndrew

Well, it is what it is, right?

Well, let me stop you right there because there's an old saying in psychology that research is me-search, which means, of course, that psychologists study things that are issues in their own life.

So-

Don't jump to any conclusions.

2016, right.

Well, I was doing research, not necessarily me search.

I don't know what prompted it exactly.

I started noticing how often I was hearing the term

People would say, I met this guy, he just creeped me out, or I was in this place that was really creepy.

And I was hearing it over and over again.

And so I started asking people, well, when you say that, what do you mean?

Is it the same thing as being afraid?

Is it the same as being disgusted?

And they always said, no, it's something completely different.

And so I got curious, well, what is this thing we call creepiness?

And being a good academic, I went to the literature and

I was just blown away.

There was not a single study, not even one ever done on creepiness.

So I saw the chance to do something kind of fun and new.

And I was working with a student who was looking for a research project, Sarah Kenke, who was the co-author on the first paper.