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. Readers’ brains go native

    Brain functions linked to reading reflect cultural differences in spelling systems.

  2. Anthropology

    Cultures of Reason

    East Asian and Western cultures may encourage fundamentally different reasoning styles, rather than build on universal processes often deemed necessary for thinking.

  3. Popular Boys Show Their Tough Side

    Some highly aggressive boys may become popular figures in their elementary school classes and wield much influence over classroom discipline.

  4. Hostile Intent: Abused kids face up to angry expressions

    Physical abuse at home apparently tunes a school-age child's perceptual system to pick up signs of anger in others' facial expressions.

  5. Numbers in Mind

    Initial reports of babies' basic counting abilities have inspired a wave of new research and a spirited debate about what infants really know about numbers.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Hemispheric Cross Talk: Brains show two sides of language function

    Some people coordinate language use with both sides of their brains, allowing them to retain verbal skills after damage to one side or the other.

  7. Mass illness tied to contagious fear

    Researchers have linked a recent outbreak of illness at a Tennessee high school to psychological factors rather than toxic gas exposure, as originally suspected.

  8. Wayward Moods: Bipolar kids travel tough road to teenhood

    Children diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a psychiatric ailment characterized by severe mood swings, exhibit a depressingly poor response to standard drug treatments and psychotherapy.

  9. Anthropology

    Ishi’s Long Road Home

    The reappearance of a California Indian's preserved brain, held at the Smithsonian Institution since 1917, triggers debate over the ethics of anthropological research and the repatriation process.

  10. The moon also rises—and assumes new sizes

    The perplexing human tendency to perceive a moon on the horizon as larger than an elevated moon may arise from visual cues indicating that the horizon moon is located much farther away.

  11. Snooze Power: Midday nap may awaken learning potential

    A brief daytime nap may block or even reverse learning declines that occur during extended practice of a perceptual task.

  12. Med use widens in kids with ADHD

    Data from a medical center in Washington state indicate that a substantial minority of children who have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder receive prescriptions not only for stimulants but also for additional psychoactive drugs intended to treat other mental conditions.