Azim Shariff

Dr. Azim Shariff is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He holds a PhD in Psychology from UBC (2010). His research focuses on the intersection of morality with religion, cultural attitudes, economics, and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and self-driving cars. His work explores topics like the ethics of automation, climate change psychology, and the role of supernatural beliefs in prosocial behavior.

Shariff has been recognized with significant awards, including membership in the Royal Society of Canada (2024), the Killam Faculty Research Prize (2023), and the Kavli Fellowship (2020). He is an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (2021) and the Society of Experimental Social Psychology (2015).

His research has been published in top journals such as Science, Nature, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Notable contributions include the 'Moral Machine Experiment' on ethical dilemmas in autonomous vehicles and studies on how perceptions of fairness and morality shape societal attitudes.

Shariff teaches courses in social and personality psychology, emphasizing critical analysis of contemporary research. He directs a laboratory investigating moral psychology and technology, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration on ethical challenges in AI and automation.