Integrating Psychometrics and Computing Perspectives on Bias and Fairness in Affective Computing: A Case Study of Automated Video Interviews

We provide a psychometric-grounded exposition of bias and fairness as applied to a typical machine learning pipeline for affective computing. We expand on an interpersonal communication framework to elucidate how to identify sources of bias that may arise in the process of inferring human emotions and other psychological constructs from observed behavior. Various methods and metrics for measuring fairness and bias are discussed along with pertinent implications within the United States legal context. We illustrate how to measure some types of bias and fairness in a case study involving automatic personality and hireability inference from multimodal data collected in video interviews for mock job applications. We encourage affective computing researchers and practitioners to encapsulate bias and fairness in their research processes and products and to consider their role, agency, and responsibility in promoting equitable and just systems. Personal use of this material is permitted. The tools used in affective computing (AC), which enable machines to identify people's behaviors and mental states, are being increasingly utilized in education, healthcare, and the workplace. One application is to aid in the allocation of limited resources (e.g., counseling, mental health care, in-person interviews) via automated screening [1-3]. In these types of high-stakes scenarios, the assessments provided by AC systems can directly affect the decision processes which influence the amount of attention, care, and opportunities afforded to individuals. As such, it is important that these processes are accurate, unbiased, and fair because any deficiencies or errors present in these systems stemming from the data they were trained on, the types of algorithms used, or the decision processes themselves, may disproportionately impact different groups of people and lead to ethical and legal concerns, not to mention pain and suffering for the vulnerable groups impacted. Simply put, AC systems must deter, not propagate, extant systems of inequity and injustice. Fortunately, we have decades of guidance on how to construct fair and unbiased measurement systems.