Dr. Gad Saad made a name for himself in the marketing world as an expert on consumer behavior, telling people why men drive sports cars and why women wear makeup. That version of Gad Saad barely exists anymore. Now, Saad spends his time pandering to the far right, offering up pseudo-psychological explanations for policy disagreements, and culture-war issues.
Nowhere is this clearer than in Saad’s signature contribution to far-right discourse: “suicidal empathy,” his theory that Western civilization is engineering its own collapse by being too compassionate. It’s a concept with no basis in psychological research, evolutionary or otherwise. Saad has never conducted a study on it, and it appears nowhere in peer-reviewed literature.
That hasn’t stopped it from becoming the latest trend in far-right discourse. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) invoked it to describe a mother on trial for killing her children. Representative Randy Fine (R-Fla.) cited it to argue Americans must “deal with the barbarians inside the gates.” Elon Musk, one of Saad’s earliest and loudest boosters, put his own endorsement on the cover of Saad’s book. What started as a marketing professor’s pet theory is now providing an excuse for far-right influencers and politicians to justify anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hostility.
Saad would tell you that he thinks we should be empathetic, but only to those he deems worthy of empathy, and in most cases that does not include Muslims, immigrants, or the LGBTQ+ community. In an interview with former conservative Deputy Prime Minister of Australia John Anderson, Saad described suicidal empathy as empathy “in the wrong instances to the wrong targets.” Who are those “wrong targets?” He furthered, “I emphasize more with the illegal migrant than with the American vet who lost his limbs defending our freedoms…I empathize more with the homeless drug dealers in the park than the children whose parents pay tax money so that the children can pay in the park.”
About Saad
Saad was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in October 1964 to a Lebanese- and Syrian-Jewish family. In October 1975, his family immigrated to Canada to escape the Lebanese Civil War. Saad’s family relocated to Montreal out of fear they, as Jewish people, would be executed if they remained in Lebanon.
In a profile for Passages Canada, an immigration storytelling project from Historica Canada, Saad said that in 1980, his parents were kidnapped by a militia while visiting Lebanon and his siblings had to negotiate for their release. He cites this event as particularly impactful on his worldview, stating that he “is familiar with the ugliness of genocidal religious zealotry” and as the reason he has “sought to inform people in the West about the dangers of being complacent in the defense of our Canadian values of tolerance, plurality, and respect for the individual.”
Saad received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science from McGill University, a public research university in Montreal. Saad also holds a Master of Business Administration from McGill University, a Master of Science in Management, and a Ph.D. in Marketing from Cornell University.
From there, Saad went on to work as a Professor of Marketing at Concordia University in Montreal. According to Saad’s website, he held “Visiting Associate Professorships” at Cornell University, Dartmouth College, and the University of California-Irvine. Most recently, Saad accepted a position as a scholar at the University of Mississippi’s Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom.
Press Release from the University of Mississippi about Saad, a Canadian citizen, joining The Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom. (Source: The University of Mississippi)
Saad’s Early Work
When Saad began his professional career as an academic, his primary research focus was consumer behavior. According to his own website, Saad claims to have “pioneered the use of evolutionary psychology in marketing and consumer behavior.” Saad took this research and published three books on consumer behavior between 2007 and 2011, the most popular of which is titled, Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal About Human Nature.
From 2008-2020, Saad wrote an opinion column in Psychology Today called “Homo Consumericus,” which he described as a blog about the psychology behind human consumption and everyday life. During the period from 2008 to around 2014, Saad focused his column on just that, writing articles like “During Economic Crises Skirts Become Shorter,” and “The Effect of Sunlight on Consumer Behavior.”
In the early 2010s, Saad’s posts took a much more overtly political turn. While he had joked about politics and political figures in older articles, for example, joking that we should give all the Nobel Prizes to Obama, these new articles were much more pointed critiques of liberal thought and Islam.
In one article, titled “Why Do Individuals Enlist with ISIS? Ask Russell Brand!” Saad criticizes comments made by British actor and accused rapist, Russell Brand, about why Mohammed Emwazi (known colloquially at the time as “Jihad John”) left his life in the United Kingdom to join ISIS. Brand had pontificated that societal factors, like loneliness, loss of community, and financial strain had driven Emwazi to the group. Saad argues that Brand is a victim of a far-left progressive mindset and is refusing to “lay blame on the clear religious convictions that drove [Emwazi] to join ISIS.
An article written by Saad for Psychology Today titled “Why Do Individuals Enlist with ISIS? Ask Russell Brand!” (Source: Psychology Today).
In another article, titled “Judging Those Who Never Judge,” Saad argues that the idea of non-judgment is intellectually dishonest and an attempt to show that one is “tolerant” and “progressive.” Saad also posted an article about his appearance in front of the Canadian Senate where he argued against the adoption of Bill C-16, a measure that enshrined the rights of transgender or gender-diverse Canadians by including them under human rights and hate-crime laws. He called the effort the “ethos of victimhood that has parasitized [Canadian] culture.”
It appears Saad stopped writing this column around 2020, with his last article titled “Academia Selects for Careerist Cowardice.” This article was seemingly a way to promote his then-new book “The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense.” This book was Saad’s first real departure from consumer behavior into social issues and far-right politics. In the book, Saad argues that Western institutions and universities are infected with ideas that suppress free speech and force people to think irrationally. Saad also criticizes what he calls “gender ideology” and what he believes is a perpetual victimhood in leftist politics.
“Suicidal Empathy”
Saad’s most recent work focuses on a concept he calls “suicidal empathy,” an idea that liberals and the left have deluded themselves into being so empathetic that they will lead the West into “civilizational collapse.” Saad argues that concepts like diversity, equity, and inclusion and policy choices like mass immigration are the direct result of this suicidal empathy.
Saad wrote these ideas down in his latest book, Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind. In a review of the book written by Matt McManus, an Assistant Professor at Spelman College, McManus describes Saad’s seeming fixation on rape. McManus writes, “Suicidal Empathy is so luridly fascinated with rape it could keep an endowed chair in feminist cultural theory employed for a lifetime. It’s filled to the brim describing chats with ‘Arabic-speaking men’ who tell Saad, ‘The West is a woman to be mounted.’ He has more anecdotes about illegal immigrants being ‘arrested for raping the daughter’ of migrant sympathizers.”
In a 2026 video for PragerU, Saad identifies himself as an “evolutionary behavioral scientist,” a term generally used to refer to a subsection of psychology, which Saad has no apparent formal training or degree in. In the same video, Saad argues that one way to prevent suicidal empathy is to be intolerant of other viewpoints, saying, “Not everything is as good as everything else, some ideas are better than others, some cultures are better than others, some religions are more peaceful than others.”
Saad in a video about suicidal empathy for PragerU. (Source: PragerU)
Saad has taken suicidal empathy on the road, with appearances across right-wing podcasts and media. Saad has appeared multiple times on The Joe Rogan Experience, most recently in May of this year, where the two discussed suicidal empathy and immigration policy. Saad also frequently appears on Fox News, including appearances on Jessie Watters Primetime, Gutfeld!, and Hannity, to rail against immigration and the left.
Another major promoter of Saad and his work is none other than Elon Musk, who has spent much of the last year railing against immigration and spreading white supremacy online. It is undeniable that Musk played a key role in the promotion of Saad and his theory, even tweeting about suicidal empathy in September of last year, long before Saad had even published his book.
Musk sharing a post from Gad Saad on X promoting suicidal empathy. (Source: X)
Musk is such a big fan, his quote is featured on the cover of Saad’s book, reading, “Western civilization is doomed unless the core weakness of suicidal empathy is recognized and actions are taken that are hard but necessary for survival. Gad Saad articulates this well. All of Gad’s books, including this one, are great.”
Recent Months
In recent months, suicidal empathy has gained significant traction with the online far right. Anti-Muslim activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known by his online moniker Tommy Robinson, referenced suicidal empathy in multiple posts on X in August 2026. Far-right political YouTuber Benny Johnson invoked suicidal empathy while discussing the Moroccan migrants entering Spain also in August. Nick Shirley, a far-right online creator who came to popularity for falsely claiming there was mass fraud being committed by the Somali community in Minnesota, wrote on X that “suicidal empathy is literally bombing us.” Shirley was referencing an attempted ISIS-inspired bombing targeting a New York City rally organized by Jake Lang, a white supremacist, convicted Capitol insurrectionist who, after being pardoned by Donald Trump for charges resulting from using a baseball bat to beat police officers on January 6, has spent his time engaging in vile racist and homophobic “activism,” mostly targeting Muslims.
Suicidal empathy also becoming popular with far-right politicians. United States Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) posted on August 20th on X about the Lindsay Clancy trial, which has taken the online far right by storm in recent weeks. Lee wrote, “This is what it looks like when toxic empathy ripens into late-state suicidal empathy. @GadSaad has identified an epidemic that can no longer be ignored.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis responded to a post on X about a mosque in the United States by writing “Suicidal empathy.”
United States Congressman Randy Fine (R-FL) posted about the concept too, writing, “Decades of suicidal empathy for foreigners have led America to this point. Now we have a choice to make. We either deal with the barbarians inside the gates or allow them to conquer us for good. I hope Americans choose wisely.” Suicidal empathy has also been referenced by Former General and Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and disgraced former Congressman George Santos.
As more of the far right uses suicidal empathy to justify rampant xenophobia and Islamophobia, Saad’s profile and influence on the far right continues to rise. What began as work about consumer behavior has transformed into unscientific theories that provide the foundation for justifying anti-immigrant policy and religious intolerance. As Saad continues to grow in popularity, the real-world consequences of “suicidal empathy” are likely only beginning to take shape.
