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  5. The Sins of the Parents are to be Laid upon the Children: Biased Humans, Biased Data, Biased Models

The Sins of the Parents are to be Laid upon the Children: Biased Humans, Biased Data, Biased Models

File(s)
Osborne2 The sins of the parents.pdf (397.45 KB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/118181
Collections
Faculty Publications - Organizational Behavior
ILR Articles and Chapters
Author
Osborne, Merrick R.
Omrani, Ali
Dehghani, Morteza
Abstract

Technological innovations have become a key driver of societal advancements. Nowhere is this more evident than in the field of machine learning (ML), which has developed algorithmic models that shape our decisions, behaviors, and outcomes. These tools have widespread use, in part, because they can synthesize massive amounts of data to make seemingly objective recommendations. Yet, in the past few years, the ML community has been drawing attention to the need for caution when interpreting and using these models. This is because these models are created by humans, from data generated by humans, whose psychology allows for various biases that impact how the models are developed, trained, tested, and interpreted. As psychologists, we thus face a fork in the road: Down the first path, we can continue to use these models without examining and addressing these critical flaws and rely on computer scientists to try to mitigate them. Down the second path, we can turn our expertise in bias toward this growing field, collaborating with computer scientists to reduce the models’ deleterious outcomes. This article serves to light the way down the second path by identifying how extant psychological research can help examine and curtail bias in ML models.

Date Issued
2023
Publisher
SAGE
Keywords
machine learning
•
bias
•
predjudice
•
fairness
Related Version
Final version published as: Osborne, M. R., Omrani, A., & Dehghani, M. (2023). The sins of the parents are to be laid upon the children: Biased humans, biased data, biased models. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 19(5), pp. 796-807.
Related DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916231180099
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Type
article

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