Otterbacher, J., Bates, J. and Clough, P.D. (2017) Competent Men and Warm Women: Gender Stereotypes and Backlash in Image Search Results. In: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 06-11 May 2017, Colorado Convention Center, Denver, CO. Association for Computing Machinery , pp. 6620-6631. ISBN 978-1-4503-4655-9
Abstract
There is much concern about algorithms that underlie information services and the view of the world they present. We develop a novel method for examining the content and strength of gender stereotypes in image search, inspired by the trait adjective checklist method. We compare the gender distribution in photos retrieved by Bing for the query “person” and for queries based on 68 character traits (e.g., “intelligent person”) in four regional markets. Photos of men are more often retrieved for “person,” as compared to women. As predicted, photos of women are more often retrieved for warm traits (e.g., “emotional”) whereas agentic traits (e.g., “rational”) are represented by photos of men. A backlash effect, where stereotype-incongruent individuals are penalized, is observed. However, backlash is more prevalent for “competent women” than “warm men.” Results underline the need to understand how and why biases enter search algorithms and at which stages of the engineering process
Metadata
Item Type: | Proceedings Paper |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 ACM. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Algorithmic bias; “Big Two” dimensions of social perception; gender stereotypes; image search. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Information School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 03 Feb 2017 12:48 |
Last Modified: | 19 Dec 2022 13:35 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025727 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Association for Computing Machinery |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1145/3025453.3025727 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:111419 |