Exploring folk theories of algorithmic news curation for explainable design

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Thao Ngo ◽  
Nicole Krämer
Keyword(s):  
Folk Theories

scholarly journals HOW DOES CRYSTAL KNOW? FOLK THEORIES AND TRUST IN PREDICTIVE ALGORITHMS THAT ASSESS INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY AND COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Liao
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Personality Profiles ◽  
Communication Preferences ◽  
Individual Personality ◽  
Predictive Algorithms ◽  
Explicit Consent ◽  
The World ◽  
Folk Theories ◽  
A Company ◽  
Practical Implications

In recent years, there has been a rise in predictive algorithms that focus on individual preferences and psychometric assessments. The idea is that an individual social media presence may give off unconscious cues or indicators of a person's personality. While there has been a growing body of research into people's reactions, perceptions, and folk theories of how algorithms work, there has been a growing need for research into these hyper-personal algorithms and profiles. This study focuses on a company called CrystalKnows, which purports to have the largest database of personality profiles in the world, many of which are generated without an individual's explicit consent. Through qualitative interviews (n=31) with people after being presented with their own profile, this study explores how people perceive the profiles, where they believe the information is coming from, and what contexts they would be comfortable with their profile being used. Crystal profiles also contain predictions about how people will communicate and potentially work together in teams with people of other personality dispositions, which also raises concerns about inaccurate assessments or discrimination based on these profiles. The findings from this study and how people rationalize these algorithms not only builds on our understanding of algorithmic perception and folk theories, but also has important practical implications for the trust in these systems and the continued deployment of hyper-personal predictive algorithms.

Rationality and reasonableness are central tenets of folk theories of sound judgment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan Andrew Meyers ◽  
Richard Eibach ◽  
Zhang Hanxiao ◽  
Igor Grossmann
Keyword(s):  
Social Contexts ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
Rational Agents ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
Holistic Approaches ◽  
Folk Theories ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Analytic Reasoning ◽  
Mapping Concept ◽  
Sound Judgment

We explore folk theories of sound judgment across two cultures, with a particular focus on the distinction between rationality and reasonableness and how people apply these concepts in a range of social and non-social contexts. Four studies using English-speaking samples in North America (Studies 1-3; N=1,826) and a Mandarin-speaking sample in China (Study 4; N=659) examine spontaneous descriptions of characteristics of sound judgment, preferences for and perception of agents in different social contexts (varying in demands for rule-based vs. holistic approaches to decision-making), and categorization of non-social objects. People spontaneously considered both rationality and reasonableness as central features of sound judgment and yet assigned unique attributes to these standards when mapping concept networks. In experiments, people favored rational agents for contexts demanding analytic reasoning and reasonable agents for contexts demanding interpretive/holistic reasoning. Moreover, across cultures, people used rule-based categorization for rational judgment and overall-similarity categorization for reasonable judgment of non-social objects.

It's time to move beyond the “Great Chain of Being”

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Sternberg
Keyword(s):  
Target Article ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Folk Theories ◽  
Great Chain Of Being

AbstractThe target article provides an anthropocentric model of understanding intelligence in nonhuman animals. Such an idea dates back to Plato and, more recently, Lovejoy: On Earth, humans are at the top and other animals at successively lower levels. We then evaluate these other animals by our anthropocentric folk theories of their intelligence rather than by their own adaptive requirements.

scholarly journals Concepts and Folk Theories

2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 379-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan A. Gelman ◽  
Cristine H. Legare
Keyword(s):  
Folk Theories

scholarly journals Biobricks and Crocheted Coral: Dispatches from the Life Sciences in the Age of Fabrication

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Roosth
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Coral Reef ◽  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Coral Reefs ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Research Initiative ◽  
Folk Theories

ArgumentWhat does “life” become at a moment when biological inquiry proceeds by manufacturing biological artifacts and systems? In this article, I juxtapose two radically different communities, synthetic biologists and Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef crafters (HCCR). Synthetic biology is a decade-old research initiative that seeks to merge biology with engineering and experimental research with manufacture. The HCCR is a distributed venture of three thousand craftspeople who cooperatively fabricate a series of yarn and plastic coral reefs to draw attention to the menace climate change poses to the Great Barrier and other reefs. Interpreting these two groups alongside one another, I suggest that for both, manufacturing biological artifacts advances their understandings of biology: in a rhetorical loop, they build new biological things in order to understand the things they are making. The resulting fabrications condense scientific and folk theories about “life” and also undo “life” as a coherent analytic object.

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