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Aggregation Bias: A Proposal to Raise Awareness Regarding Inclusion in Visual Analytics

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Trends and Innovations in Information Systems and Technologies (WorldCIST 2020)

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Abstract

Data is a powerful tool to make informed decisions. They can be used to design products, to segment the market, and to design policies. However, trusting so much in data can have its drawbacks. Sometimes a set of indicators can conceal the reality behind them, leading to biased decisions that could be very harmful to underrepresented individuals, for example. It is challenging to ensure unbiased decision-making processes because people have their own beliefs and characteristics and be unaware of them. However, visual tools can assist decision-making processes and raise awareness regarding potential data issues. This work describes a proposal to fight biases related to aggregated data by detecting issues during visual analysis and highlighting them, trying to avoid drawing inaccurate conclusions.

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Acknowledgments

This research work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Vocational Training under an FPU fellowship (FPU17/03276). This work has been partially funded by the Spanish Government Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness throughout the DEFINES project (Ref. TIN2016-80172-R) and the Ministry of Education of the Junta de Castilla y León (Spain) throughout the T-CUIDA project (Ref. SA061P17).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. GRIAL Research Group, Computer Sciences Department, Research Institute for Educational Sciences, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Andrea Vázquez-Ingelmo, Francisco J. García-Peñalvo & Roberto Therón

  2. VisUSAL Research Group, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Roberto Therón

Authors
  1. Andrea Vázquez-Ingelmo
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  2. Francisco J. García-Peñalvo
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  3. Roberto Therón
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Vázquez-Ingelmo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Engenharia Informática, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Álvaro Rocha

  2. College of Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Hojjat Adeli

  3. FEUP, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Luís Paulo Reis

  4. DIMES, Università della Calabria, Arcavacata, Italy

    Sandra Costanzo

  5. Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro

    Irena Orovic

  6. Universidade Portucalense, Porto, Portugal

    Fernando Moreira

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Vázquez-Ingelmo, A., García-Peñalvo, F.J., Therón, R. (2020). Aggregation Bias: A Proposal to Raise Awareness Regarding Inclusion in Visual Analytics. In: Rocha, Á., Adeli, H., Reis, L., Costanzo, S., Orovic, I., Moreira, F. (eds) Trends and Innovations in Information Systems and Technologies. WorldCIST 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1161. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45697-9_40

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