The connection between psychology and computers is an important juncture to innovative design and user-centered technology. It’s also where unintentional harms 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, research in psychology relies on two fundamental methods of collecting data which are laboratory tests and surveys or interviews [1]. The first study a specific aspect in a small, controlled environment; the latter evaluate the behavior of a larger group using self-report questionnaires or (potentially structured) interviews. Both suffer from inherent limitations.
Computers are able to process and analyze massive amounts of data at a rapid speed, and in ways that traditional methods aren’t able to. This makes them powerful tools for psychologists and opens up a completely new area 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 comprised of psychologists with domain expertise and computer scientists with the skills necessary to build large-scale systems, manage and analyze data.
However, until recently, there was not much collaboration between the different fields. For instance, Google directors have been more likely to study computer and computational science (29 percent of them studied it) in comparison to psychology (less than two percent). This has led to a lack of psychological understanding in the management of tech companies, which has the result that many tech products fail destructive online activity and computer games to consider psychological factors.