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The intersection of computers and psychology is a critical juncture for innovation and user-centered design in technology. It’s also a place where many unintended injuries to people happen. That’s why we need psychologists to play a bigger role in tech development–particularly given that many technology companies change human behavior at scale and profit from behavioral changes, and generally embrace scientific innovation.
Traditionally, psychological research is based on two basic methods of data collection which are laboratory experiments and surveys or interviews [1]. The former focus on a particular aspect in a controlled, small environment; the latter evaluate larger behavior with self-report surveys or (potentially structured) interviews. Both have inherent limitations.
Computers, however, are able to process and analyze large quantities of information at high speed, and in ways that traditional methods can’t. This is why they are powerful tools for psychologists which opens up a new field of study. For example, a new field called Psycho(neuro)informatics is emerging that merges psychology and computer science to develop models of human brains and intelligence. This requires a team consisting of psychologists with domain expertise and computer scientists who have the skills required to create large-scale systems, manage and model data.
But until recently, there was little collaboration between the fields. For instance, Google directors have been more likely to study computer and computational science (29 percent of them studied it), than psychology (less than 2%). This has likely resulted in psychologists being under-represented as leaders at tech companies. This has meant that technology products often fail to take psychological considerations into consideration.