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. Psychology

    Vodka delivers shot of creativity

    Alcohol intoxication raises men’s performance on a test of verbal ingenuity.

  2. Animals

    Chimps lend a hand

    The finding suggests nonhuman primates recognize their peers’ intentions and desires.

  3. Psychology

    Fighting willpower’s catch-22

    Avoiding daily temptations works better than using willpower, which has oddly unintended effects.

  4. Humans

    Catching a mood on Facebook

    Happiness and other feelings filter among online friends through their brief posts.

  5. Humans

    Junk food in schools gets weighty reprieve

    Disputed data suggest that non-nutritious eats sold on-site don’t fatten kids.

  6. Psychology

    Babies lip-read before talking

    Tots acquire the gift of gab by matching adults’ mouth movements to spoken words.

  7. Psychology

    Big score for the hot hand

    Hot hands exist in professional volleyball and influence game strategy.

  8. Psychology

    Europeans’ heartfelt ignorance

    Many people in nine countries don't know how to recognize or react to heart attacks and strokes.

  9. Psychology

    Face deficit holds object lesson

    A brain-damaged man yields controversial clues to how people identify complex objects.

  10. Humans

    Tools of a kind

    People in southern Arabia around 100,000 years ago made tools like those of East Africans.

  11. Humans

    DNA highlights Native American die-off

    A genetic analysis points to widespread New World deaths after Europeans arrived.

  12. Humans

    Neandertals’ mammoth building project

    Stone Age people’s evolutionary cousins may have constructed earliest bone structures.