Postdoctoral Position for Fall 2026 / Winter 2027

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Decision-Making and Cultural Narratives

University of Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

The Wisdom and Culture Lab at the University of Waterloo, directed by Igor Grossmann, is seeking applications for a Post-Doctoral Research Associate to join a new international project on cultural narratives and decision-making, starting in Fall 2026 / Winter 2027. The postdoc is structured as a one-year appointment with opportunity for renewal at the one-year mark assuming excellent performance.

POSITION DESCRIPTION: The successful candidate will help lead a multi-society project examining how cultural narratives shape behavior in canonical economic and coordination games. The project pairs harmonized game protocols with structured narrative probes across a global consortium spanning societies across five continents, and culminates in a ManyLabs-style intervention study testing whether locally resonant narrative framings can foster cooperation more effectively than standard material incentives. The work sits at the intersection of decision science, behavioral economics, cultural psychology, and computational sciences, drawing on multilingual large language model (LLM) topic modelling combined with cross-cultural human-in-the-loop validation. Our interdisciplinary team is at the forefront of experimental wisdom and culture research, and the post-doctoral associate will have the opportunity to contribute to ongoing studies, develop new ones, co-author publications, help coordinate the international consortium, mentor graduate and undergraduate trainees, and advance their independent program of research.

QUALIFICATIONS. Competitive candidates will have: a PhD in social psychology, cognitive/decision sciences, behavioral economics, or a closely related discipline by the time of appointment; a strong track record of research; excellent quantitative and statistical skills; excellent manuscript writing skills; and demonstrated interest in at least two of the following: cross-cultural research, behavioral game theory (e.g., ultimatum, dictator, public goods, trust, or coordination games), moral and social judgment, cultural psychology, or computational social science. Hands-on experience with computational text analysis — including topic modelling, embeddings, fine-tuning of LLMs, human-in-the-loop validation pipelines — is required. Strong programming skills in R and/or Python and experience with reproducible analytic workflows are greatly desired. Familiarity with multilingual data and prior collaboration on large international research consortia are assets.

Salary will be benchmarked above the postdoctoral fellowship recommendation paid by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), commensurate with experience, plus benefits. Postdoctoral candidates who have their own funding may also apply.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS. Please submit the following materials to Berke Aydas (lab manager) via email:

a cover letter; CV; a 2–3 page personal/research statement containing biographic information, relevant research experience, and career goals; up to three sample publications (with at least one demonstrating quantitative and/or computational text analysis work, where possible); and the contact details of three referees by May 31. Review of applications will continue until the position is filled.

Please direct inquiries to Dr. Grossmann.