By Quinn Cooley
It is estimated that by 2020, we will be creating 1.7 megabytes of information for every single person on the planet–every second of every day. It’s hard to wrap your mind around numbers this big, but the data influx continues to grow. Fortunately, we now have the tools to actually use a lot of this big data. Companies of all sizes are now collecting and analyzing these large datasets to find insights that help to improve everything from decision-making to streamlining organizational processes.
Although we typically think of big data as a purely logical aspect of business operations, proper analysis isn’t just about the algorithms and asking the right questions. It also requires knowledge of psychology and emotions. Why? Because the customer behavior big data collects is a direct reflection of what humans do. A data scientist may not be able to make sense of these patterns and pull out relevant insights—but a psychologist will.
Past behavior typically gives psychologists a good idea of what future behavior will look like. Customers with certain behaviors are more likely to exhibit seemingly unrelated behavior. For instance, you wouldn’t think that a credit score might affect someone’s likelihood of getting into a car accident, but these are just the kinds of links that psychologists can pull out of large datasets during analysis. Psychologists have made some other surprising discoveries based on big data as well. For example, Google’s Project Oxygen discovered that technical ability was actually the least important skill for effective managers—counterintuitive at a tech company.
It’s early days for psychologists on the analytics team. Many small and medium-sized businesses simply don’t have the budget to hire someone else to look over their data—data scientists are in demand and command high salaries. However, large Fortune 500 companies are beginning to see the value in having someone with a background in human behavior. Big data has enormous potential for return on investment, however. The healthcare industry could save up to $300 billion a year, and retailers could increase operating margins by up to 60%. With that kind of potential, it’s no wonder that large companies are starting to put more resources into their big data departments and hiring psychologists.
Check out this infographic from the University of Southern California’s online Master of Science in Applied Psychology to learn more about big data’s role in business and how psychologists are helping to make data even more profitable for companies.
