Cited by 257Usability and User Interface DesignInnovative Human-Technology InteractionGender and Technology in Education

How WEIRD is CHI?

Open access
Linxen, Sebastian, Sturm, Christian, Brühlmann, Florian, Cassau, Vincent, Opwis, Klaus, Reinecke, Katharina·2021·Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Computer technology is often designed in technology hubs in Western countries, invariably making it “WEIRD”, because it is based on the intuition, knowledge, and values of people who are Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. Developing technology that is universally useful and engaging requires knowledge about members of WEIRD and non-WEIRD societies alike. In other words, it requires us, the CHI community, to generate this knowledge by studying representative participant samples. To find out to what extent CHI participant samples are from Western societies, we analyzed papers published in the CHI proceedings between 2016-2020. Our findings show that 73% of CHI study findings are based on Western participant samples, representing less than 12% of the world’s population. Furthermore, we show that most participant samples at CHI tend to come from industrialized, rich, and democratic countries with generally highly educated populations. Encouragingly, recent years have seen a slight increase in non-Western samples and those that include several countries. We discuss suggestions for further broadening the international representation of CHI participant samples.

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Research works printed but not linked: 11

  1. ACM. 2020. Conferences CHI -CHI: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://dl.acm.org/conference/chi
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Authors
Linxen, S., Sturm, C., Brühlmann, F., Cassau, V., Opwis, K., & Reinecke, K.
Affiliations
  • University of Basel (CH)
  • Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences (DE)
  • University of Washington (US)
Venue
Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher
ACM
Published
2021-05-06
Pages
1-14
OpenAlex
W1119960297
Cited by
254
References
81
Citations by year
2026: 36 · 2025: 70 · 2024: 57 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 9
FWCI
27.66
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
Locations
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Science Foundation (1651487)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Usability and User Interface Design
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender and Technology in Education
Keywords
WEIRD populations, cross-cultural research, sample diversity

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