1 research outputs found
Not Only WEIRD but "Uncanny"? A Systematic Review of Diversity in Human-Robot Interaction Research
Critical voices within and beyond the scientific community have pointed to a
grave matter of concern regarding who is included in research and who is not.
Subsequent investigations have revealed an extensive form of sampling bias
across a broad range of disciplines that conduct human subjects research called
"WEIRD": Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, and Democratic. Recent work has
indicated that this pattern exists within human-computer interaction (HCI)
research, as well. How then does human-robot interaction (HRI) fare? And could
there be other patterns of sampling bias at play, perhaps those especially
relevant to this field of study? We conducted a systematic review of the
premier ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
(2006-2022) to discover whether and how WEIRD HRI research is. Importantly, we
expanded our purview to other factors of representation highlighted by critical
work on inclusion and intersectionality as potentially underreported,
overlooked, and even marginalized factors of human diversity. Findings from 827
studies across 749 papers confirm that participants in HRI research also tend
to be drawn from WEIRD populations. Moreover, we find evidence of limited,
obscured, and possible misrepresentation in participant sampling and reporting
along key axes of diversity: sex and gender, race and ethnicity, age, sexuality
and family configuration, disability, body type, ideology, and domain
expertise. We discuss methodological and ethical implications for recruitment,
analysis, and reporting, as well as the significance for HRI as a base of
knowledge.Comment: Published at IJSR/SORO, Int J of Soc Robotics (2023