Bruce MacFarlane Hood is a Canadian-born British experimental psychologist and philosopher who specialises in developmental cognitive neuroscience.

He is currently based at the University of Bristol and his major research interests include intuitive theories, self identity, essentialism and the cognitive processes behind adult magical thinking.

Modelled after the successful Psychology and the Good Life course initiated by Laurie Santos at Yale University, the programme has been shown to improve mental well-being[10] and is the basis for the BBC podcast The Happiness Half-Hour[11] co-presented by Hood.

[19] Hood's third popular science book, The Domesticated Brain, was published in 2014 and explores the neuro-cognitive origins and consequences of social behaviour in humans.

published in 2019[24] addresses the psychological mechanisms behind over-consumption and the link between materialism and self-identity building on the ideas of William James and Russell Belk's 'extended self-concept'.

In addition to books, Hood has appeared in numerous popular science podcasts, radio shows, TV series and documentary movies.

Hood also appeared in the award-winning eco-documentary movie Living in the Futures' Past[27] co-produced and presented by academy award winner Jeff Bridges.

Hood played a key part in exposing the ADE 651 bogus bomb detector and similar devices in January 2010.

[28][29] In this documentary, Hood demonstrates that the perceived effect of the devices can be explained by the ideomotor phenomenon, which had fooled naive users.