Gad Saad
Gad Saad (born 13 October 1964) is a Lebanese-born Canadian marketing professor, currently at the University of Mississippi, and formerly at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University in Montreal He has argued for applying evolutionary psychology to marketing and consumer behaviour. He wrote a blog for Psychology Today and hosts a podcast titled The Saad Truth.
Also recorded as Dr. Gad Saad
Gad Saad

Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America · Gad Saad · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Name
- Gad Saad
- Born
- 13 October 1964
- Birthplace
- Beirut, Lebanon
- Education
- McGill University (BSc, MBA) Cornell University (MS, PhD)
- Nationality
- Canada · Lebanon
- Occupation
- youtuber · political scientist · television producer · university teacher · writer · psychologist
- Fields
- behavioral sciences · marketing · consumer behavior · psychology
- Languages
- English · French · Arabic
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Gad Saad (born 13 October 1964) is a Lebanese-born Canadian marketing professor, currently at the University of Mississippi, and formerly at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University in Montreal He has argued for applying evolutionary psychology to marketing and consumer behaviour. He wrote a blog for Psychology Today and hosts a podcast titled The Saad Truth.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Gad Saad. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- unresolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q5516266 · wikipedia · Gad Saad
In this article
Biography
Biography
Gad Saad studied at McGill University and Cornell University. The recorded working language is English, French and Arabic. The field of work recorded is behavioral sciences, marketing and consumer behavior. Residence is recorded at Montreal. Employment is recorded with Cornell University and Concordia University.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Gad Saad • Born — 13 October 1964 • Birthplace — Beirut, Lebanon • Fields — Marketing, consumer behaviour • Workplaces — Concordia University • Education — McGill University (BSc, MBA) Cornell University (MS, PhD) • Thesis Title — The adaptive use of stopping policies in sequential consumer choice • Thesis Url — https: newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/2707797 • Thesis Year — 1994 • Doctoral Advisor — Edward Russo • Website — gadsaad.com
Early life and education
Early life and education
Saad was born in 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon, to a family of both Lebanese Jewish and Syrian Jewish descent. His family fled in October 1975 to Montreal, Canada to escape the Lebanese Civil War. His elder brother, David, is a judoka who competed at the 1976 Summer Olympics. His nephew Ariel Helwani is a mixed martial arts journalist. Saad obtained a bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science, an MBA in marketing from McGill University, and a master's degree in management and a doctorate in marketing from Cornell. Saad is an atheist who describes himself as culturally Jewish.
Career
Career
Saad had been a professor of marketing at Concordia University in Montreal, since 1994. From 2008 until 2018, he held the Concordia University Research Chair in Evolutionary Behavioural Sciences and Darwinian Consumption. He has held visiting professorships at Cornell University, Dartmouth College, University of California, Irvine, and Northwood University. He was an associate editor for the journal Evolutionary Psychology from 2012 to 2015. He is an advisory fellow for the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Saad wrote a blog for Psychology Today titled Homo Consumericus from 2008 until 2020, and contributed to The Wall Street Journal in 2011. Saad hosts a YouTube show titled The Saad Truth. His channel has received more than 40 million views. In May 2026, he announced he was leaving Montreal to take a position at the Declaration of Independence Center at the University of Mississippi.
Research
Research
Saad has researched how hormones affect and are affected by consumer behavior, such as how conspicuous consumption affects testosterone levels, how testosterone levels affect risk-taking, and how hormones in the menstrual cycle affect buying decisions.
Views
Views
Saad has long publicly argued against political correctness and social justice activism, which he believes limits academia. In 2017, he provided testimony to the Canadian Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs arguing against Bill C-16 which added gender expression and gender identity as protected grounds to the Canadian Human Rights Act. More recently he has argued against what he calls "wokeism", especially with regards to transgender people. Saad coined the phrase suicidal empathy, which he defines as a form of empathy that has the potential to cause the destruction of the party exhibiting it. The concept has been criticized, by Valerie Stivers, senior editor at UnHerd, as "fake science" and somewhere between "off-putting and hateful". Matthew d'Ancona described Saad's rhetoric around the term as "spectacularly divisive". Saad has been critical of immigration from Muslims to what he describes as "Western countries".
Leaving Canada
Leaving Canada
In May 2026, Saad said on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that he and his family were moving to Oxford, Mississippi due to Canada's tax system and immigration policies.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
- Montreal
Named but not plotted · 1
Beirut.
Birth place
Books
• Saad, G. (2007). The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.. Book review • Saad, G. (ed.) (2011). Evolutionary Psychology in the Business Sciences. Springer: Heidelberg, Germany.. Book review • Saad, G. (2011). The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal About Human Nature. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.. Book review • Saad, G. (2020). The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing.. • Saad, G. (2023). The Saad Truth About Happiness: 8 Secrets for Leading the Good Life. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing.. • Saad, G. (2026). Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind. New York, NY: Broadside Books..
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 29 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
38,991 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Gabriello ChiabreraAuthor
- GabriolaTerminology
- GACKTAuthor
- Gad LernerAuthor
- Gad YaacobiAuthor
- Gadadhara PanditaAuthor
- GaddarAuthor
- Ğädel QutuyAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Gad Saad?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.