Paper Reading - Five Provocations for Ethical HCI Research
Five Provocations for Ethical HCI Research
Author
Barry Brown, Alexandra Weilenmann, Donald McMillan, Airi Lampinen, CHI 2016
Keywords
Ethics; Human Trials; Research Practice
WHAT
- to question some of the taken for granted foundations of ethics in HCI
WHY
HCI research projects have generated controversy due to their purported unethicality
ethical creep: virtuous but impractical positions are advocated, and little attention is paid to how seemingly ethical positions can delay, damage or stop research, with serious implications
HOW
- an attempt to engender conversation through five provocations
5 provocations
Written informed consent does little to protect participants
Interventions with vulnerable populations must result in greater benefit for them than for the researchers
Anonymisation should be an option presented alongside co-creation of research with participants, not a default
Institutional review boards delay and damage research out of proportion to any harm they prevent. We should replace them
Publication of research performed with, or within, a commercial entity should be blocked until the complete dataset is made available to others – both during review and for future replicability of analysis
Discussion
The distinctive character of ethics in HCI
involve in the creation or design and implementation of particular social environments
have an orientation towards change in terms of design
give participants a conversely privileged position – they can influence the future shape of the tool they are using
Situated, Ordinary Ethics
Differentiate between ethics as practice versus ethics as law
Support low-risk experiments around ethics
Start a conversation on the definition of harm in ethics