Professor Bruce Hood

Bruce Hood is the Professor of Developmental Psychology in Society in the School of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol.

He has been a research fellow at Cambridge University and University College London, a visiting scientist at MIT and a faculty professor at Harvard. He has been awarded an Alfred Sloan Fellowship in neuroscience, the Young Investigator Award from the International Society of Infancy Researchers, the Robert Fantz memorial award and voted to Fellowship status by the society of American Psychological Science. He is also a Fellow of the Society of Biology (UK) and the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

His diverse research interests include the origins of supernatural beliefs, intuitive theory formation, object representation, spatial cognition, inhibitory control and general cognitive development conducted at his labs at the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre which opened in 2001.

He has written two books for the general public, “SuperSense” (HarperOne, 2009) about the natural origins of supernatural beliefs which has been published in 12 countries, and “The Self Illusion” (Constable & Robinson 2012) about the fallacy that we are coherent, integrated individuals but rather a constructed narrative largely influenced by those around us.

He has also co-authored a highly successful undergraduate textbook “Psychology”  (Palgrave, 2011) and co-edited an academic book on development of object knowledge “The Origins of Object Knowledge” (OUP, 2009).
He has appeared in a number of TV science documentaries and in 2011 delivered the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures which were broadcast on the BBC to over 4 million viewers.