Collaborative Research: An Exploratory Study of the Ethical Implications of Embedding Values in Computational Models

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The proposed research seeks to explore how values are embedded in computational models, how these values are shaped by professional and organizational culture, and the effects of these embedded values on the success of computational models as products. In order to accomplish these objectives, three hypotheses will guide the research: 1) that the values embedded in computational models will partially, but not fully, correspond to those found in sociology and science and technology studies literatures, but additional values specific to computational models will also be identified; 2) that the ethical frameworks of the organization and the profession partially, but not fully, determine what values are embedded during the modeling process; and 3) that the embedding of values in computational models is a significant aspect of their development, and thus that the success or failure of a model as a product is partially, but not fully, determined by what values are embedded during the modeling process. This project emerges at the intersection of the process of modeling and the ethics of modeling. These two threads are inseparably interlinked, since professional and organizational ethics play a role in shaping the process of modeling, while an understanding of the process of modeling is necessary in order to understand how values become embedded in computational models. To test these hypotheses and achieve these objectives, it is necessary to employ a multiple-methodology approach to data collection and analysis. At the selected field site, a computational modeling laboratory, the researchers will utilize structured questionnaires, interviews, participant observation, and focus groups to study the process of computational modeling. Data analysis will be both quantitative and qualitative, and will be based on statistical methodologies, behavioral analysis, and content analysis. The purposes of this exploratory study are to demonstrate the validity of the proposed methodology by conducting all four data collection approaches with corresponding data analyses for one field site, while at the same time producing valuable data about the ethical implications of values embedded in computational models. This project builds on the experience and strengths of both researchers, including prior NSF-sponsored research. One of the PIs has forty years of experience as a computational modeler, including research on the ethics of modeling, while the other PI has an educational background in computer science, anthropology, and science and technology studies. This study, first, aims to contribute to the literature on the ethics of modeling by providing an in-depth case study of the ethics and values of computational modeling. Second, the methodology for conducting in-depth field data collection and analysis will contribute to the literature on professional and organizational culture and ethics. Finally, the study will also contribute by bringing together the literatures on models as products and modeling as a process, which can lead to a better understanding of the effect that embedding specific values during the process of computational modeling can have on the success of the computational model as a product. The first social contribution of this study will be to improve the practice of computational modeling by demonstrating to modelers how values are embedded in the models that they produce and the ethical implications of these embedded values. A second social contribution of this study will be to make modelers more aware of the constraints of their organizational cultures. Finally, the findings of this and subsequent research can eventually lead to the development of online modules for educating computer science students in the ethics of modeling, which would provide computer science programs with a free resource that they could use to develop ethics courses.