Understanding human behavior is fundamental to building a more just world
En un mundo donde la tecnología acelera las decisiones humanas y desdibuja los límites entre disciplinas, Argentina comienza a formar una nueva generación de profesionales capaces de comprender por qué las personas piensan, sienten y actúan como lo hacen. La Licenciatura en Ciencias del Comportamiento, que ya ofrecen cuatro universidades y que el ITBA sumará en marzo de 2026, no busca reemplazar a la psicología ni a la neurociencia, sino tejerlas junto a la economía conductual, la estadística y la programación en una sola mirada integradora. Es, en el fondo, una apuesta por la comprensión de la naturaleza humana como la competencia más valiosa del siglo que comienza.
- El mercado laboral exige perfiles que ninguna carrera tradicional forma por sí sola, y esa brecha se vuelve cada vez más urgente a medida que la tecnología transforma industrias enteras.
- Cinco universidades argentinas responden al desafío con una licenciatura que combina neurociencia, psicología, ciencia de datos, economía conductual y filosofía en un único programa de cuatro años.
- El ITBA se suma en marzo de 2026 bajo la dirección de la investigadora del CONICET Valeria Abusamra, quien plantea que entender el comportamiento humano es clave para construir sociedades más justas y eficientes.
- Los graduados no heredan un título fijo sino una identidad profesional fluida: pueden trabajar en políticas públicas, experiencia de usuario, salud, educación, consultoría estratégica e impacto social.
- La carrera ya tiene inscripción abierta y representa una señal clara de que el futuro pertenece a quienes pueden sostener múltiples marcos de pensamiento al mismo tiempo.
Cada mañana, antes de terminar el café, el cerebro humano ya tomó miles de decisiones. Los investigadores estiman que una persona realiza alrededor de treinta mil elecciones por día, la mayoría automáticas y apenas conscientes, pero capaces de moldear el rumbo de una vida entera. Comprender cómo y por qué los seres humanos piensan, sienten y actúan se ha convertido en uno de los grandes desafíos intelectuales de nuestra época, sobre todo cuando la tecnología avanza más rápido que nuestra capacidad de anticipar sus consecuencias.
Ese es el punto de partida de la Licenciatura en Ciencias del Comportamiento, una carrera que gana terreno en Argentina. No es psicología sola, ni neurociencia sola, ni ciencia de datos sola: es la articulación de todas ellas junto a la filosofía, la ética, la economía conductual, la antropología y la programación. La idea no es preparar a alguien para un puesto que ya existe, sino para un mundo donde los problemas reales exigen miradas integradas.
Cuatro universidades ya la ofrecen —Di Tella, San Andrés, UCA y Palermo— y el ITBA se incorporará en marzo de 2026. Al frente del programa estará Valeria Abusamra, lingüista, doctora e investigadora del CONICET especializada en psicolingüística y neurociencia del lenguaje. En la presentación de la carrera, Abusamra fue directa: entender el comportamiento humano, individual y colectivo, es fundamental para construir un mundo más justo, eficiente y empático.
Lo que distingue a esta licenciatura es lo que deliberadamente evita: encerrar al estudiante en una identidad profesional única desde el primer día. Un graduado en Ciencias del Comportamiento emerge con conocimiento profundo de los procesos neurocognitivos y con habilidades técnicas sólidas en programación y análisis de datos, una combinación que abre puertas en sectores muy distintos. Puede diseñar políticas públicas basadas en evidencia, mejorar la experiencia de usuario en productos digitales, gestionar equipos con comprensión real de la motivación humana, o liderar proyectos de impacto social y ambiental.
La carrera dura cuatro años, con ochenta por ciento de cursada presencial y veinte por ciento virtual. Las inscripciones para la cohorte del ITBA ya están abiertas. En el fondo, el programa es una apuesta concreta: que entender la naturaleza humana en toda su complejidad es la habilidad más valiosa que alguien puede desarrollar en el mundo que viene.
Every morning, before you've finished your coffee, your brain has already made thousands of decisions. What to wear. What to eat. Which message to answer first. Researchers estimate a person makes roughly thirty thousand choices in a single day—most of them automatic, barely conscious, yet collectively they shape the entire trajectory of a life. Understanding how and why humans think, feel, and act has become one of the central intellectual challenges of our time, especially as technology accelerates and the world grows more complex in ways we cannot fully predict.
This is the premise behind a degree program that is gaining momentum across Argentina and beyond: the Bachelor of Behavioral Sciences. It is not psychology alone, nor neuroscience alone, nor data science alone. Instead, it weaves together cognitive psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, ethics, statistics, behavioral economics, anthropology, and computer programming into a single interdisciplinary framework. The idea is to prepare professionals not for a job title that already exists, but for a world where the boundaries between traditional professions have become porous and real problems demand an integrated approach.
Four Argentine universities currently offer the degree: Universidad Di Tella, Universidad de San Andrés, Universidad Católica Argentina, and Universidad de Palermo. Beginning in March 2026, the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires (ITBA) will add it to its roster. Valeria Abusamra, a linguist with a doctorate and a researcher at CONICET who specializes in psycholinguistics and the neuroscience of language, directs the program at ITBA. At its launch, she framed the stakes clearly: understanding human behavior—both individual and collective—is fundamental to building a world that is more just, efficient, and empathetic. The knowledge, she argued, can reshape workplaces, transform education, optimize health systems, improve public policy, and ultimately help people live together better.
What distinguishes this degree from traditional programs is precisely what it does not do: it does not lock a student into a single professional identity from the moment they enroll. A medical student becomes a doctor. A law student becomes a lawyer. An engineering student becomes an engineer. A behavioral sciences graduate becomes something more fluid—a professional equipped to analyze, interpret, and intervene across a wide range of situations, grounded in rigorous knowledge of how humans actually behave. They emerge with deep expertise in neurocognitive processes paired with strong technical skills in programming and data science, a combination that opens doors across sectors.
The career paths are diverse. Graduates can work in marketing and consumer behavior, designing strategies based on how people actually make purchasing decisions. They can work in organizations and business, managing teams and developing products with insight into human motivation. They can work in health and wellness, education, human development, and research. They can design and evaluate public policy with evidence-based understanding of behavioral change. They can lead projects aimed at social and environmental impact. They can improve user experience in digital products. They can serve as strategic consultants, helping institutions understand why people behave as they do and how to create lasting change.
The program itself runs four years and is structured as eighty percent in-person, twenty percent online. Enrollment for the ITBA cohort beginning in March 2026 is already open. The degree reflects a broader recognition that the future belongs not to narrow specialists but to people who can hold multiple frameworks in their mind at once—who understand both the brain and the algorithm, both individual psychology and collective behavior, both the science of decision-making and the ethics of intervention. It is, in essence, a bet that understanding human nature, in all its complexity, is the most valuable skill a person can develop.
Citas Notables
Understanding the human mind, both individually and collectively, is essential for building a more just, efficient, and empathetic world, and this knowledge can transform workplaces, education, health systems, and public policy.— Valeria Abusamra, director of the Behavioral Sciences degree at ITBA
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does a degree like this matter now, specifically? Psychology and neuroscience have existed for decades.
Because technology has changed what we can do with that knowledge. We can now collect massive amounts of behavioral data, run experiments at scale, and build systems that respond to human behavior in real time. A psychologist from fifty years ago couldn't do that. But a person trained in both psychology and data science can.
So it's really about the intersection—not just understanding behavior, but being able to measure and act on it.
Exactly. And it's also about recognizing that real problems don't fit into single disciplines. If you're designing a public health campaign, you need to know neuroscience, economics, psychology, and how to analyze data. You need to understand why people make the choices they make, not just what choices are available.
What kind of person chooses this degree over, say, a traditional psychology program?
Someone who wants flexibility, who's curious about how systems work at multiple levels, who isn't afraid of math and code. Someone who sees that the future of work isn't about job titles—it's about being able to solve problems that don't have a clear disciplinary home.
And the universities offering it—are they betting that this is what employers actually want?
They're betting that employers will want it, yes. But more than that, they're betting that the world will need it. If you're trying to understand why people make bad decisions, or how to help them make better ones, you need this kind of training. It's not a niche thing.