Applying big data methods to understanding human behavior and health

While many fields have benefited greatly from the collection and analysis of big data, some health fields and, to a large extent, psychology are still lagging behind (Azmak et al., 2015). Azmak et al. (2015) have shown an example (e.g., Sloan Digital Sky) on how the collection of large datasets has aided researchers to solve difficult problems in astronomy that were not possible in the past. Interestingly, the slow process of applying big data to psychology mirrors the history of development of sciences, as astronomy and other sciences are much older than experimental psychology (which emerged in the nineteenth century). This is related to the fact that while many sciences are data-driven, psychology, to a large degree, is hypothesis-driven.