Reflexive Design for Fairness and Other Human Values in Formal Models

Abstract: Algorithms and other formal models purportedly incorporating human values like fairness have grown increasingly popular in computer science. In response to sociotechnical challenges in the use of these models, designers and researchers have taken widely divergent positions on how formal models incorporating aspects of human values should be used: encouraging their use, moving away from them, or ignoring the normative consequences altogether. In this paper, we seek to resolve these divergent positions by identifying the main conceptual limits of formal modeling, and develop four reflexive values--value fidelity, appropriate accuracy, value legibility, and value contestation--vital for incorporating human values adequately into formal models. We then provide a brief methodology for reflexively designing formal models incorporating human values.