Situational ethics: Re-thinking approaches to formal ethics requirements for human-computer interaction

Cosmin Munteanu, Heather Molyneaux, Wendy Moncur, Mario Romero, Susan O'Donnell, John Vines

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    101 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Most Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers are accustomed to the process of formal ethics review for their evaluation or field trial protocol. Although this process varies by country, the underlying principles are universal. While this process is often a formality, for field research or lab-based studies with vulnerable users, formal ethics requirements can be challenging to navigate - A common occurrence in the social sciences; yet, in many cases, foreign to HCI researchers. Nevertheless, with the increase in new areas of research such as mobile technologies for marginalized populations or assistive technologies, this is a current reality. In this paper we present our experiences and challenges in conducting several studies that evaluate interactive systems in difficult settings, from the perspective of the ethics process. Based on these, we draft recommendations for mitigating the effect of such challenges to the ethical conduct of research. We then issue a call for interaction researchers, together with policy makers, to refine existing ethics guidelines and protocols in order to more accurately capture the particularities of such field-based evaluations, qualitative studies, challenging labbased evaluations, and ethnographic observations.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationCHI 2015 - Proceedings of the 33rd Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    Subtitle of host publicationCrossings
    PublisherACM
    Pages105-114
    Number of pages10
    Volume2015-April
    ISBN (Electronic)9781450331456
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 18 Apr 2015
    Event33rd Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2015 - Seoul, Korea, Republic of
    Duration: 18 Apr 201523 Apr 2015

    Conference

    Conference33rd Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2015
    Country/TerritoryKorea, Republic of
    CitySeoul
    Period18/04/1523/04/15

    Keywords

    • ethics
    • field studies
    • research protocol
    • situational ethics
    • vulnerable populations

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