Edmond (Eddy) Awad

🧠 Is your research still relying on Western participants? 15 years after “The WEIRDest People in the World” by @JoHenrich et al., most studies still overuse WEIRD samples. In this paper, published in Behavior Research Methods, I offer digital pathways to move beyond that.

Machine+Behavior conference is back! Pls spread the word. 18-19 May, 2026 Abstract submissions deadline 8 Feb Speakers include: @cocosci_lab @ThoreG @summerfieldlab @weidingerlaura @a_baronca machinebehavior.science

Recruiting a grad student! My lab at NYU (psych dept) studies the computational basis of moral cognition and aims to build AI systems that are aligned with human values. Now admitting a PhD student for Fall 2026. Apps due 12/1. sites.google.com/site/sydneymle…

As academic hiring season begins, search committees will again wrestle with the topic of faculty diversity. After years of these discussions, I’ve found they often skip the most fundamental question: Why does it matter? Diversity for what? New piece in Nature Reviews Psych 🧵w/🔗

Lupin spent five episodes mastering disguise and plotting impossible heists at the Louvre. Meanwhile, someone just walked in during daylight and did it.

🚨 New Chapter Preprint: Is Empathic AI Possible? W/ @firat_sekr & Aliah Zewail Many AI researchers treat empathy as something to engineer into machines. But empathy is shaped by culture and context. We must first accept that there is no single "human" empathy. @cam_lab_umass

If you know a 🚨 Scholar at Risk 🚨 please share! I am delighted to share that applications are now open for the MAXMINDS mentoring program. This initiative supports researchers who have been displaced, or are at risk of displacement, due to war or natural disasters, and who currently have limited access to resources and institutional support. It is open to scholars at all career stages and offers tailored mentoring – from guidance on applications for positions, fellowships, or guest programs within the Max Planck Society, to support based on the research interests of both mentors and mentees. Mentoring will last at least three months, with the option to extend to six. Apply here: maxminds.mpg.de/3630/apply The deadline to apply is September 15. Please share this opportunity with researchers who may benefit. Those interested in joining as mentors are warmly invited to contact us at maxminds@mpib-berlin.mpg.de for more information.

Trying to figure out how future technologies will reshape behaviour and society is tough, but indispensable. In a new @Nature paper w/ @iyadrahwan & JF Bonnefon, we describe an experimental approach we call "the science fiction science method” (sci-fi-sci) nature.com/articles/s4158…

Thanks to Jean-Francois Bonnefon Molly Crockett @DoniecKatarzyna @JoHenrich Julian Jamison, @iyadrahwan Zoe Rahwan, and Azim Shariff for their insightful comments on an earlier draft of the article. @UniofExeter @UniofOxford @ethicsinthenews @mpib_berlin

For the full text see: 👉 link.springer.com/article/10.375…

🧠 Is your research still relying on Western participants? 15 years after “The WEIRDest People in the World” by @JoHenrich et al., most studies still overuse WEIRD samples. In this paper, published in Behavior Research Methods, I offer digital pathways to move beyond that.

Looking forward to presenting and meeting everyone there

🧵1/12 New GreeneLab paper in Nature Human Behaviour—after 5+ years! Our cooperative quiz game, Tango (letstango.org), defuses political animosity and improves democracy-related attitudes. Some key effects last 4 months doi.org/10.1038/s41562…

How do we choose between protecting nature & meeting human needs? Exploring this through our Citizen Science project #LastHaven @EdmondAwad 's letter to the editor: shorturl.at/7csDc Take part▶️last-haven.net #antitheses #ethics #Philosophymatters

New paper: Applying computation tools to over 2000 years of textual data in Chinese, we test the hypothesis that the organization of families (kin-based institutions) shapes our psychology. @MohammadAtari90 @slingerland20 @KevinHong1991 @JF_Schulz

How do we choose between protecting nature & meeting human needs? Exploring this through our Citizen Science project #LastHaven @EdmondAwad's letter to the editor theguardian.com/politics/2025/… Take part▶️last-haven.net #CitizenScience #antitheses #landuse #housing #ethics

That’s exactly what we explore in Last Haven: 🌍 last-haven.net #LastHaven #conservation #planning #housing #biodiversity #publicopinion @ANTITH3SES @Ethox_Centre @juliansavulescu @ethicsinthenews @mgreinecke @UniofOxford @UniofExeter

These trade-offs are not just about land use—they reflect real choices about what we protect, what we sacrifice, and whose interests we prioritise.

Glad to see that @guardian published my letter on one of the most urgent dilemmas we face today: how to balance housing needs with protecting nature. 📄 theguardian.com/politics/2025/…