Post-doc

Waterloo, Ontario

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cultural Narratives, Cooperation, and Decision-Making

Wisdom & Culture Lab, University of Waterloo, Canada · Anticipated start: Winter/Spring 2027 · Updated October 2026

Can a narrative do what an incentive can't? We are testing whether culturally resonant narratives foster cooperation more effectively than material rewards, across societies on five continents.

The Wisdom and Culture Lab at the University of Waterloo, directed by Igor Grossmann, is seeking a postdoctoral fellow to join a new international project on cultural narratives and decision-making. The ideal candidate is a decision scientist or behavioral economist who is curious about culture, narratives, or computational social science.

The project examines how cultural narratives shape behavior in canonical economic and coordination games. It pairs harmonized game protocols with structured narrative probes across a global consortium with partner sites across five continents, and culminates in a ManyLabs-style intervention study testing whether locally resonant narrative framings foster cooperation more effectively than standard material incentives. For decision scientists, it offers a rare test of framing and construal effects at cross-cultural scale: do narratives change cooperation itself, or how people understand the game?

The work sits at the intersection of decision science, behavioral economics, cultural psychology, and computational social science. Narrative data are analyzed with multilingual LLM-based text analysis, supported by the lab's research software engineer, and validated through cross-cultural human-in-the-loop coding.

Responsibilities
- Help lead a multi-society study of narratives and cooperation in economic and coordination games (e.g., ultimatum, dictator, public goods, trust, coordination)
- Design, preregister, and analyze the ManyLabs-style intervention study
- Provide scientific leadership within the international consortium, with logistical support from the lab's research project manager
- Work with the research software engineer on multilingual text analysis and human-in-the-loop validation
- Contribute to ongoing studies, develop new ones, and lead and co-author publications
- Mentor graduate and undergraduate trainees and advance an independent program of research

Qualifications
Applicants should have completed, or expect to complete before starting, a PhD in judgment and decision making, behavioral economics, cognitive or social psychology, cultural psychology, or a closely related discipline.

Competitive candidates will have:
- Research training in judgment and decision making, behavioral game theory, or moral and social judgment
- Excellent quantitative and statistical skills
- Strong programming skills in R and/or Python and experience with reproducible analytic workflows
- Research productivity appropriate to career stage
- Excellent manuscript writing skills

Particularly useful: experience with cross-cultural or cultural psychology research, computational text analysis (e.g., topic modelling, embeddings, LLM-based coding, or human-in-the-loop validation), computational social science, multilingual data, or collaboration in large international research consortia.

Expertise in every area above is not required. We especially encourage decision scientists and behavioral economists who are curious about culture, narratives, or computational methods. Text-analysis methods can be learned on the job; the project includes dedicated research-engineering support.

Employment details
- Full-time postdoctoral fellowship; initial 12-month appointment, with anticipated renewal at the one-year mark subject to performance
- CAD $70,000/year plus benefits
- Postdoctoral candidates who have their own funding may also apply
- Based at the University of Waterloo; hybrid arrangements may be possible

Start date: Winter/Spring 2027, with some flexibility

Eligibility: open to applicants of any nationality

Please submit a cover letter, CV, a 2-3 page research statement describing relevant research experience, research interests, and career goals, up to three sample publications (with at least one demonstrating your quantitative or computational skills), and the contact details of three referees.

In your cover letter, briefly describe how you would tell whether a narrative framing changed cooperation itself, rather than how participants understood the game.

Review of applications begins Nov 15 and continues until the position is filled. Send materials to [email protected] with the subject line "Cultural Narratives Postdoc."

https://uwaterloo.ca/wisdom-and-culture-lab/news/postdoctoral-fellowship-cultural-narratives-cooperation-and

29/10/2026

29/12/2026

3478504467

[email protected]