Gad Saad (/ˈɡæd ˈsæd/; Arabic: جاد سعد; born 13 October 1964) is a Canadian marketing professor at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University.[2] He has argued for applying evolutionary psychology to marketing and consumer behaviour.[3][4] He wrote a blog for Psychology Today and hosts a YouTube channel titled "The Saad Truth".
Gad Saad | |
---|---|
Born | Beirut, Lebanon | 13 October 1964
Nationality | Lebanese, Canadian |
Education | McGill University (BSc, MBA) Cornell University (MSc, PhD) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Marketing, consumer behaviour |
Institutions | Concordia University |
Thesis | The adaptive use of stopping policies in sequential consumer choice (1994) |
Doctoral advisor | Edward Russo |
YouTube information | |
Channel |
|
Subscribers | 298 thousand[1] |
Total views | 33.37 million[1] |
Last updated: 2 April 2024 | |
Website | gadsaad |
Saad was born in 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon, he is of Lebanese Jewish and Syrian Jewish ancestry.[5] His family fled in October 1975 to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to escape the Lebanese Civil War.[6]
He obtained a B.Sc. (mathematics and computer science) and M.B.A. from McGill University, and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Cornell University.[7]
Saad is an atheist who describes himself as culturally Jewish.[8]
Saad has been a professor of marketing at Concordia University since 1994. From 2008 until 2018, he held the Concordia University Research Chair in Evolutionary Behavioural Sciences and Darwinian Consumption. He has also held visiting professorships at Cornell University, Dartmouth College, and the University of California, Irvine. He was an associate editor for the journal Evolutionary Psychology from 2012 to 2015.[9] He is an advisory fellow for the Centre for Inquiry Canada.[10]
Saad hosts a YouTube show titled The Saad Truth. As of February 2021, his channel has received more than 22 million views.[11]
Saad writes a blog for Psychology Today titled Homo Consumericus.[12]
Saad has researched how hormones affect and is affected by consumer behavior, such as how conspicuous consumption affects testosterone levels,[13][14] how testosterone levels affect risk-taking,[15][16][17] and how hormones in the menstrual cycle affect buying decisions.[18][19] He has also researched how men and women differ in gift giving behaviors.[20][21][22][23]
Saad has been profiled in the Toronto Star[11] and his life story was documented by the Télévision française de l'Ontario.[24] Saad has contributed to The Wall Street Journal.[25]
As of 2022, he had been featured on seven episodes of Joe Rogan's podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.[11] In February 2022, Spotify removed 70 episodes of the podcast which included Rogan using a racist slur, one of which has Saad as a guest.[26][27] Saad has also appeared on Sam Harris's Making Sense podcast (then titled Waking Up).[11]