2023.Jul.11

REPORTS

Report on the 2nd BAIRAL Research Meeting for 2023 “Information Design to reduce Cognitive Bias: Visualization of User Generated Opinions”

On June 22, 2023, the 2nd BAIRAL Research Meeting for 2023, organized by the Research Assistants of the B’AI Global Forum, was held online. Makiko Harada, an RPD from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and a Project Researcher at the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo, was invited to speak on the topic “Information Design to reduce Cognitive Bias: Visualization of User Generated Opinions.”

In her presentation, she first pointed out the possibility of various biases when searching for and perceiving information on the Internet. She also warned about the risks of obtaining biased information, which can lead to interpreting the information in one’s own favor and encourage the acquisition of erroneous or low quality information. Based on the above awareness of the problem, the presenter focused on data from Twitter, where small opinions of the masses that are not easily reported in the mass media are posted, and proposed a method to reduce bias and raise awareness of the outside of our consciousness. This method involves analyzing the text of search results and presenting data in a manner that differs from existing user interfaces, thereby addressing the challenges associated with information search and recognition in the modern age.

Next, the presenter introduced the works she has created so far in her research to achieve the aforementioned goals. For example, she demonstrated and explained applications such as emotion extraction and visualization based on emotion coloring from search results, cross-lingual search and visualization of keyword extraction results in English, Japanese, and Spanish, and visualization of the transition of search engine search prediction candidates to support general search. During the session, participants asked questions from a variety of perspectives. All the examples were characterized by their ingenious use of expressions that prompted a ‘why’ mindset instead of a mere ‘I see’ response to the search results, and the systems that generated ‘questions’ about information were intended for application to information literacy education in schools and social contribution.

Harada’s presentation on “Information Design to reduce Cognitive Bias: Visualization of User Generated Opinions” has the potential to inspire individuals in this era of rapid progress in information technology to adopt a fresh perspective on the world. We would like to continue our research and development, based on this discussion, so that we can deepen our understanding of various social issues from various perspectives and find better solutions mediated by technology and information design.