JULY 19, 2026
Evolutionary psychologist Gad Saad publishes "Suicidal Empathy," a book arguing Western compassion has become self-destructive
Gad Saad, an evolutionary behavioral scientist and former marketing professor at Concordia University in Montreal, has published a new book titled "Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind," which debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. The book argues that a misdirected form of empathy now drives many of the West's policy decisions across areas including immigration, diversity programs, and gender policy. Saad is also the host of "The Saad Truth" podcast and the author of the 2020 international bestseller "The Parasitic Mind."
Gad Saad, who held a research chair in evolutionary behavioral sciences at Concordia University from 2008 to 2018, spent more than three decades in academia authoring over 75 scientific papers before becoming a widely followed public intellectual. His YouTube show and podcast have accumulated more than 50 million views and downloads, and his Psychology Today column has registered over 7.47 million reads. As of August, he is joining the University of Mississippi as a distinguished visiting professor at its Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom.
"Suicidal Empathy" is framed by Saad as a sequel and refinement of "The Parasitic Mind," narrowing its focus to what he describes as one specific mechanism — dysregulated compassion that, in his phrase, "hyperfires toward the wrong targets." The book is organized across eight chapters and traces what Saad presents as a pattern of misplaced empathy across policy domains: DEI spending at universities, immigration, transgender athletes in women's sports, and Western responses to Islamist violence. Saad characterizes this as a "unified field theory" linking phenomena that might otherwise appear unconnected.
The book's reception has been amplified by prominent figures: Elon Musk has promoted it on X to tens of millions of followers, and the book carries endorsements from Musk, Joe Rogan, and Jordan Peterson. Saad told the Washington Examiner that the term "suicidal empathy" first appeared in his testimony before the Canadian Senate on Bill C-16, and that its conceptual roots trace to his engagement with the sociobiological work of E.O. Wilson, particularly Wilson's book "Consilience."