Gad Saad
Lebanese-Canadian evolutionary psychologist and marketing professor at Concordia University known for applying evolutionary theory to consumer behavior; author of The Consuming Instinct and The Parasitic Mind and host of The Saad Truth podcast.
Books
This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.
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1. Consuming Instinct
What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal About Human Nature
Explores how evolved psychological drives—survival, mating, kin selection, and reciprocity—shape modern consumer choices, from cravings for calorie-dense foods to the allure of luxury goods and sexualized advertising. Drawing on evolutionary psychology, cross-cultural evidence, and marketing research, it explains sex differences, hormonal influences, and status signaling behind branding, gift-giving, risk-taking, and aesthetic preferences, while showing how universal instincts are channeled through culture into diverse patterns of consumption.
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2. Parasitic Mind
How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense
Using an evolutionary-psychology perspective, the book argues that certain ideologies—such as postmodernism, cultural relativism, identity politics, and other faith-based convictions—act like “idea pathogens” that infect minds, erode critical thinking, suppress free inquiry, and threaten scientific and liberal values; through personal anecdotes, cultural critique, and appeals to empirical evidence it advocates for intellectual hygiene—defending reason, free speech, and evidence-based thinking to inoculate society against these harmful ideas.
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3. The Parasitic Mind
How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense
Argues that contemporary ideological “idea pathogens” — postmodern relativism, political correctness, identity politics and victimhood culture — are eroding free inquiry, common sense and scientific thinking; uses evolutionary psychology, real-world examples of campus and media censorship, and cultural analysis to show how these memes spread and silence dissent; and calls for a return to evidence-based reasoning, free speech and intellectual courage as the antidotes to stop the contagion.
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