Gender-based cognitive bias and design thinking in the work of Finnish IT professionals

IF 4.3 2区计算机科学 Q2 COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Information and Software Technology Pub Date : 2025-10-03 DOI:10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107910

Aila Kronqvist , Rebekah Rousi

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Context

Cognitive bias is a concern in artificial intelligence (AI) development. Research shows the prominence of cognitive bias within algorithms. We argue that cognitive bias is more than training data, but rather development team composition. Design Thinking (DT) is an approach used to reduce bias via multidisciplinary expertise. The article presents a study examining DT in addressing gender-based cognitive bias in the Finnish information technology industry.

Objective

The aim was to examine how the gender of IT professionals influences familiarity with and use of DT, coupled with awareness and addressing of cognitive bias in IT development processes.

Method

A mixed method questionnaire was used to collect data from N = 93 participants. Questions probed familiarity with DT, use of DT, and cognitive bias handling in participants’ organizations. Non-parametric tests were used to analyze quantitative data, due to abnormal distributions. Atlas.ti was used to code and analyze the qualitative data. Categorization determined whether participants recognized bias in their work, and the importance they attributed towards dealing with gender-based bias in IT.

Results

Women were more likely to view gender-based cognitive bias as relevant. Women were significantly more familiar with DT as a methodology (p = 0.028), men were significantly more likely to engage in user studies (p = 0.018). Older participants showed a tendency to emphasize the importance of open discussion more than other participant groups, with some analyses indicating a trend-level difference (p = 0.085). Qualitative responses indicated the importance of discussion in development teams to avoid or mitigate bias, suggesting the need for organizational psychological safety.

Conclusion

The paper provides novel contributions to the human dimension of bias in AI and IT in general. Results show that men and women IT professionals were aware of DT, yet men professionals were more likely to mitigate bias through collecting insight from end-users.

查看原文本刊更多论文

芬兰IT专业人员工作中的性别认知偏见与设计思维

认知偏差是人工智能（AI）发展中的一个问题。研究表明，认知偏差在算法中非常突出。我们认为认知偏差不仅仅是训练数据，而是开发团队的组成。设计思维（DT）是一种通过多学科专业知识来减少偏见的方法。本文提出了一项研究，检查DT在解决芬兰信息技术产业中基于性别的认知偏见。目的是研究IT专业人员的性别如何影响对DT的熟悉和使用，以及对IT开发过程中认知偏见的认识和解决。方法采用混合问卷法对93名被试进行资料收集。问题探讨了参与者组织中对DT的熟悉程度、使用DT和认知偏见处理。由于分布异常，采用非参数检验分析定量数据。阿特拉斯。采用Ti对定性数据进行编码和分析。分类决定了参与者是否认识到他们工作中的偏见，以及他们认为处理IT中基于性别的偏见的重要性。结果女性更倾向于将基于性别的认知偏见视为相关因素。女性更熟悉DT作为一种方法（p = 0.028），男性更有可能参与用户研究（p = 0.018）。年龄较大的参与者比其他参与者群体更倾向于强调公开讨论的重要性，一些分析表明趋势水平存在差异（p = 0.085）。定性的回答表明了在开发团队中讨论避免或减轻偏见的重要性，表明了组织心理安全的需要。结论本文对人工智能和信息技术中的人类偏见维度做出了新的贡献。结果表明，男性和女性IT专业人员都意识到DT，但男性专业人员更有可能通过收集最终用户的见解来减轻偏见。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Information and Software Technology 工程技术-计算机：软件工程

CiteScore

9.10

自引率

7.70%

发文量

164

审稿时长

9.6 weeks

期刊介绍： Information and Software Technology is the international archival journal focusing on research and experience that contributes to the improvement of software development practices. The journal''s scope includes methods and techniques to better engineer software and manage its development. Articles submitted for review should have a clear component of software engineering or address ways to improve the engineering and management of software development. Areas covered by the journal include: • Software management, quality and metrics, • Software processes, • Software architecture, modelling, specification, design and programming • Functional and non-functional software requirements • Software testing and verification & validation • Empirical studies of all aspects of engineering and managing software development Short Communications is a new section dedicated to short papers addressing new ideas, controversial opinions, "Negative" results and much more. Read the Guide for authors for more information. The journal encourages and welcomes submissions of systematic literature studies (reviews and maps) within the scope of the journal. Information and Software Technology is the premiere outlet for systematic literature studies in software engineering.