Policy and population behavior in the age of Big Data

Policies are large-scale interventions that typically aim to influence behaviors and decision-making across entire populations to obtain a desired outcome. With the rapid increase in Big Data and its growing influence on policy, there is an emerging opportunity to produce meaningful and efficient mechanisms for improving public policy outcomes. However, there are still considerable gaps between existing theories in the behavioral sciences and evidence generated by Big Data, including the representation of key groups within the population. We outline the need for replicating established behavioral insights through Big Data that should coincide with clear ethical standards for implementing such approaches through evidence-based policymaking.