Assistant Professor Clinical Program Dr. Bauer is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Georgia. Dr. Bauer earned his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2022 after completing his pre-doctoral internship at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) Medical Center. Dr. Bauer’s program of research uses a behavioral economic framework to help understand mental health-related decisions (e.g., help seeking) and to influence people towards choices that align with their own self-declared interests, with a particular emphasis in suicide prevention. Dr. Bauer has focused extensively on examining how cognitive heuristics and biases might contribute to suicide-related outcomes and inform prevention efforts and interventions. This line of research has been funded through several externally-funded agencies, including from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. I will not be accepting new graduate students for Fall 2025. My lab is currently focused on the following topics: Using passive sensing data (e.g., smartphone, wearables) to detect symptoms of a suicidal crisis Applying nudges to real-world settings to increase engagement with suicide prevention resources and help seeking Examining various decision-making processes and their relationship to suicide risk via behavioral (e.g., task-based) and psychophysiological measurements (e.g., EEG) Students with a research background and interest in studying these topics (or related topics) will be a good fit for the lab. Students with quantitative backgrounds or experience with statistical programming languages (e.g., R) are especially encouraged to apply. Education Education: Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS M.S., Counseling Psychology, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR B.A., Psychology/Philosophy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA Research Research Interests: Suicide Theory and Prevention, Behavioral Economics, Digital Phenotyping, Cognitive Biases and Mental Health, EEG/ERP Selected Publications Selected Publications: Bauer, B.W., Hom, M.A., Karnick, A.T., Charpentier, C.J., Keefer, L.A., Capron, D.W., Rudd, M.D., & Bryan, C.J. (2022). Does hopelessness accurately predict how bad you will feel in the future? Initial evidence of affective forecasting errors in individuals with elevated suicide risk. Cognitive Therapy and Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-021-10285-7 Bauer, B.W., Karnick, A., Wells, T., Tucker, R., & Capron, D.W. (2021). Altering preferences for suicide crisis resources using the decoy nudge: Evidence of context-dependent effects in suicide prevention decision making. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 89(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000617 Bauer, B.W. & Capron, D.W. (2020). How behavioral economics and nudges could help diminish irrationality in suicide-related decisions. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(1), 44-61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619866463 Bauer, B. W., Tucker, R. P., & Capron, D. W. (2019). A Nudge in a new direction: Integrating behavioral economic strategies into suicide prevention work. Clinical Psychological Science, 7(3), 612-620. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702618809367
