Bruce Bower

Bruce Bower

Behavioral Sciences Writer

Bruce Bower has written about the behavioral sciences since 1984. He often writes about psychology, anthropology, archaeology and mental health issues. Bruce has a master's degree in psychology from Pepperdine University and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. Following an internship at Science News in 1981, he worked as a reporter at Psychiatric News, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association, until joining Science News as a staff writer. In 1996, the American Psychological Association appointed Bruce a Science Writer Fellow, with a grant to visit psychological scientists of his own choosing. Early stints as an aide in a day school for children and teenagers with severe psychological problems and as a counselor in a drug diversion center provided Bruce with a surprisingly good background for a career in science journalism.

All Stories by Bruce Bower

  1. Worried to Death: Lifelong inhibitions hasten rodents’ deaths

    In rats with a fear of novel situations, an exaggerated hormonal response to minor types of stress adds up to a shorter life than that of bold rats.

  2. Allies in Therapy: Depression fix feeds off patient-therapist bond

    Psychotherapy's ability to quell symptoms of depression may depend more on the therapeutic alliance, a measure of the bond between patient and therapist, than on any specific techniques wielded by the therapist.

  3. ADHD’s Brain Trail: Cerebral clues emerge for attention disorder

    A new brain-imaging investigation suggests that disturbances in a network of regions involved in regulating actions and attention underlie the childhood psychiatric ailment known as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

  4. Bias Bites Back: Racial prejudice may sap mental control

    White people who hold biased attitudes toward blacks experience a decline in the ability to monitor and control information after brief interracial encounters, a new study suggests.

  5. Anthropology

    Anklebone kicks up primate debate

    The discoverers of a roughly 40-million-year-old anklebone in Myanmar say that it supports the controversial theory that anthropoids, a primate group that includes monkeys, apes, and humans, originated in Asia.

  6. Vision Seekers

    An investigation of school-age children who received cataract surgery after being blind from birth examines the extent to which these kids are able to perceive the visual world and the ways in which their brains respond to newfound sight.

  7. Whiffs of Perception: Sniffing activates the mind’s nose

    People spontaneously sniff while imagining various smells, an act that intensifies odor perception.

  8. Anthropology

    Europe’s Iceman was a valley guy

    The 5,200-year-old Iceman, whose mummified body was found 12 years ago in the Alps between Italy and Austria, spent his life in the valleys just south of where his body was found, according to chemical analyses of his remains.

  9. Forgetting to Remember: Emotion robs memory while reviving it

    A common biological mechanism may boost memory for emotional events and block recall for what happened just before those events occurred, at least over the short run.

  10. Anthropology

    Stone Age Code Red: Scarlet symbols emerge in Israeli cave

    Lumps of red ocher excavated near human graves in an Israeli cave indicate that symbolic thinking occurred at least 90,000 years ago, much earlier than archaeologists have traditionally assumed.

  11. IQ Yo-Yo: Test changes alter retardation diagnoses

    Mental retardation placements in U.S. schools rose dramatically in the first five years after a commonly used IQ test was revised, raising concerns about how IQ scores are used to diagnose mental retardation.

  12. Poor Relations: Casino windfall reveals poverty’s toll on Cherokee kids’ behavior

    A study of Indian families before and after they began receiving an annual financial windfall supports the theory that poverty undermines psychological health, at least among children.