Cited by 151Data Visualization and AnalyticsEthics and Social Impacts of AIEthics in Business and Education

Ethical Dimensions of Visualization Research

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Correll, Michael·2019·Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Abstract

Visualizations have a potentially enormous influence on how data are used to make decisions across all areas of human endeavor. However, it is not clear how this power connects to ethical duties: what obligations do we have when it comes to visualizations and visual analytics systems, beyond our duties as scientists and engineers? Drawing on historical and contemporary examples, I address the moral components of the design and use of visualizations, identify some ongoing areas of visualization research with ethical dilemmas, and propose a set of additional moral obligations that we have as designers, builders, and researchers of visualizations.

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  • Correll [9] calls for selecting datasets that are of social import or impact as means for advocating for positive change.

    “Correll [9], referring to example data more generally, calls for selecting datasets that are of social import or impact as means for advocating for positive change.”

    From Considering Visualization Example Galleries (2024) · cites this paper as [9]

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  1. Hannah Arendt. 2006. Eichmann in jerusalem. Penguin.
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  4. Maciej Ceglowski. 2014. The Internet with a Human Face. talk at Beyond Tellerrand in Düsseldorf, Germany, on 20 (2014).
  5. Michael Correll and Jeffrey Heer. 2017. Black hat visualization. In Workshop on Dealing with Cognitive Biases in Visualisations (DECISIVe), IEEE VIS.
  6. Craig Dalton and Jim Thatcher. 2014. What does a critical data studies look like, and why do we care? Seven points for a critical approach to ?big data'. Society and Space 29 (2014).
  7. Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein. 2019. Data Feminism. MIT Press. 2018 Draft.
  8. Sam Dragga and Dan Voss. 2001. Cruel pies: The inhumanity of technical illustrations. Technical communication 48, 3 (2001), 265-- 274.
  9. W.E.B. Du Bois. 1900. Proportion of freemen and slaves among American Negroes. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.33913. A series of statistical charts illustrating the condition of the descendants CHI 2019 May 4--9 2019 Glasgow Scotland Uk Michael Correll of former African slaves now in residence in the United States of America.
  10. W.E.B. Du Bois et al. 1926. Criteria of Negro art. Crisis 32, 6 (1926), 290--297.
  11. Ryan Gallagher. 2018. Google Shut Out Privacy and Security Teams From Secret China Project. The Intercept (Nov 2018). https: //theintercept.com/2018/11/29/google-china-censored-search/
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  15. Jack Poulson. 2018. I Quit Google Over Its Censored Chinese Search Engine. The Company Needs to Clarify Its Position on Human Rights. The Intercept (Sep 2018). https://theintercept.com/2018/ 12/01/google-china-censorship-human-rights/
  16. Sarah Slobin. 2014. What If the Data Visualization is Actually People? Source (Apr 2014). https://source.opennews.org/articles/ what-if-data-visualization-actually-people/

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Authors
Correll, M.
Affiliations
Tableau Software (United States) (US)
Corresponding author
Correll, Michael
Venue
Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher
ACM
Published
2019-05-02
Pages
1-13
OpenAlex
W2952342347
Cited by
150
References
99
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 4
FWCI
5.00
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Data Visualization and Analytics
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Ethics in Business and Education
Keywords
visual analytics, moral obligation, data visualization design, ethical dilemmas, decision-making, professional ethics

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