Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cultural Psychology, Measurement, and Wise Decision-Making
Wisdom and Culture Lab, University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Anticipated start: Fall 2026 or Winter 2027
Initial term: 1 year, with possibility of renewal pending performance and funding
The Wisdom and Culture Lab at the University of Waterloo, directed by Igor Grossmann, invites applications for a postdoctoral fellowship on the Wise Judgment Consortium, an international research initiative examining how people across cultures decide what is wise, reasonable, and effective in complex social situations.
This position is ideal for a scholar trained in cultural psychology, social psychology, psychometrics/measurement, individual differences, experimental methods, survey design, or related areas who wants to help build the next generation of cross-cultural tools for studying wise judgment in real-world contexts.
The opportunity
Many theories of judgment and decision-making are built around well-defined problems, Western samples, and abstract choice tasks. The Wise Judgment Consortium takes a different approach. We study the messy, culturally embedded dilemmas people actually face: interpersonal conflicts, moral trade-offs, family obligations, uncertainty, social norms, and competing values.
The postdoctoral fellow will play a central role in the next phases of the project: translating earlier cross-cultural work on wise decision strategies into psychometric measures, longitudinal diary studies, within-person experiments, and intervention tools. The work asks not only what strategies people consider wise, but when those strategies work, for whom, in which situations, and in which cultural ecologies.
This is a rare opportunity to help shape a large-scale international project from the inside, work with an interdisciplinary 20-country strong consortium, develop open-science resources for the field, and build a strong independent research profile at the intersection of culture, judgment, measurement, and social decision-making.
Responsibilities
The postdoctoral fellow will contribute to several linked components of the project, including:
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Developing and validating psychometric measures of common decision strategies across cultural contexts
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Designing cross-cultural survey and experimental studies on judgment, meta-judgment, and strategy calibration
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Leading or co-leading longitudinal diary/event-reconstruction studies of everyday decision-making
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Analyzing individual, situational, and cultural variation in strategy use and perceived effectiveness
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Coordinating with international collaborators on study design, translation, recruitment, and data quality
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Conducting advanced quantitative analyses, including multilevel models, measurement models, and/or longitudinal models
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Preparing manuscripts for publication and conference presentation
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Supporting open-science workflows, including preregistration, reproducible code, documentation, and data harmonization
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Mentoring graduate and undergraduate trainees in the lab
The fellow will be encouraged to develop first-authored papers and an independent research program aligned with the broader goals of the project.
Qualifications
Applicants should have a PhD in psychology, cognitive science, behavioral science, decision science, or a closely related field by the time of appointment.
Strong candidates will have expertise in at least two of the following areas:
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Cultural or cross-cultural psychology
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Social psychology, especially experimental or survey-based research
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Psychometrics, measurement, scale development, or measurement invariance
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Individual differences and personality assessment
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Judgment and decision-making
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Moral, interpersonal, or social cognition
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Longitudinal, diary, experience-sampling, or within-person designs
Applicants should also have:
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Strong quantitative skills
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Experience designing rigorous behavioral studies
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Excellent scientific writing skills
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Facility with R, Python, or another statistical programming language
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Evidence of past reproducible and open-science workflows
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Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a large international team
Experience with multilingual data, cross-cultural measurement, cognitive interviewing, large-scale online studies, or international research coordination would be an asset.
Why Waterloo and the Wisdom and Culture Lab?
The Wisdom and Culture Lab offers a collaborative, intellectually ambitious environment for studying how people reason, reflect, and make decisions across contexts. The successful candidate will join a project with unusually rich opportunities: large cross-cultural datasets, an international collaborator network, open-science infrastructure, and multiple publication streams spanning measurement, culture, individual differences, social judgment, and interventions.
The position is especially well suited for a postdoctoral scholar who wants to do theoretically meaningful work while also gaining hands-on experience with the practical realities of large-scale cross-cultural research.
Compensation
Salary will be benchmarked at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellowship recommendation and will be commensurate with experience. Benefits are included. Applicants with their own fellowship or external funding are also welcome to apply.
Application materials
Please submit the following materials by email to Berke Aydas, Lab Manager, at berke.aydas@uwaterloo.ca:
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Cover letter
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CV
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Research statement, 2–3 pages, describing relevant experience, research interests, and career goals
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Up to three writing samples or publications
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Contact information for three referees
Please use the subject line: WJC Postdoc Application
Review of applications will begin May 31, 2026 and continue until the position is filled.
Questions may be directed to Dr. Igor Grossmann at igrossma@uwaterloo.ca.