Igor Grossmann

Welcome! I’m Igor Grossmann, directing the Wisdom and Culture Lab at the University of Waterloo. My team and I are passionate about how people make sense of the world and how cultural forces shape human behavior and societal change. Our current pursuits include meta-theories of good judgment, wise reasoning, and intellectual humility, to name just a few. We embrace collaboration and innovation, combining perspectives from anthropology to economics and computational sciences, employing cutting-edge techniques to psychometric modeling, cross-cultural research, NLP, and behavioral experiments. If you share our passion for understanding the human mind and desire to contribute to societal progress, I invite you to explore our research, join our collaborative efforts, or simply get in touch. I eagerly look forward to connecting with you!

Projects

World After Covid

How do we navigate the changes ahead? Since June 2020, I have interviewed 55+ world leaders in behavioral & social sciences about their forecasts and advice for the world, creating a time-capsule of hopes and worries about the post-Covid future.

Wisdom

Many people have ideas about wisdom, but is it anything more than a pipedream? How can we identify and train wisdom, while avoiding misconceptions about it?

cultural change

One key cultural universal is that cultures and societies constantly change. How can we quantify societal change in psychological and cultural dimensions? Which dimensions change faster and why?

forecasting

What do scientists and lay people think about the societal changes in the months to come? In the Behavioral and Social Science Forecasting Collaborative, we evaluate accuracy of forecasts, comparing different models against actual change over time.

News

"Social scientists look to AI models to study human behavior " - Axios article on the new Science perspective about AI-assisted social science research.
"Illeism: The ancient trick to help you think more wisely" - BBC coverage of the research on training wisdom-related meta-cognition via illeist journaling.
"Does this mean Christmas is cancelled? Your COVID-19 questions answered" - CBC interview on how to navigate challenges of holiday gatherings in the time of the pandemic.
"Psychologists find a mindset that can foster positive feelings amid interpersonal conflict" - Two longitudinal studies found evidence that using wise reasoning when thinking about an anticipated interpersonal conflict leads to better relational outcomes.
"How to show your project’s worth in social science and humanities research proposals" - University Affairs interview about tips for prospective grant applicants when writing a successful grant proposal in social sciences.
"Science of wisdom featured on ABC radio" - Amanda Vanstone from ABC's "Counterpoint" talks to Igor on the show about his latest AEON article on wisdom.