The interplay between psychology and computers is vital to advancing and design of technology that is user-centric. It’s also where many unintended injuries to people occur. 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.
In the past data collection in psychological research was based on two main methods: laboratory tests and surveys [1]. The former focuses on a specific aspect in a small controlled environment, while the latter examines more general behavior using self-reporting questionnaires or (potentially) structured interviews. Both have inherent limitations.
Computers, however, can store and analyze massive quantities of information at high speed. They can also do this in ways traditional methods are unable to. This makes them powerful new tools for psychological researchers and open up a new field of research. 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 of experts: psychologists with domain knowledge, and computer scientists with the expertise to construct large-scale tracking systems and to manage and model the resulting data.
But until recent, there was hardly any collaboration between these fields. Google directors, for example are more likely to have completed studies in computer and computational sciences (29 percent) than psychology (less that 2percent). This has likely resulted in psychologists not being a majority in leadership at tech companies. This has meant that technology products fail to take psychological factors into consideration.