Representativeness and face-ism: Gender bias in image search

Ulloa, Roberto; Richter, Ana Carolina; Makhortykh, Mykola; Urman, Aleksandra; Kacperski, Celina Sylwia (2022). Representativeness and face-ism: Gender bias in image search. New media & society, 26(6), pp. 3541-3567. Sage 10.1177/14614448221100699

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Implicit and explicit gender biases in media representations of individuals have long existed. Women are less likely to be represented in gender-neutral media content (representation bias), and their face-to-body ratio in images is often lower (face-ism bias). In this article, we look at representativeness and face-ism in search engine image results. We systematically queried four search engines (Google, Bing, Baidu, Yandex) from three locations, using two browsers and in two waves, with gender-neutral (person, intelligent person) and gendered (woman, intelligent woman, man, intelligent man) terminology, accessing the top 100 image results. We employed automatic identification for the individual’s gender expression (female/male) and the calculation of the face-to-body ratio of individuals depicted. We find that, as in other forms of media, search engine images perpetuate biases to the detriment of women, confirming the existence of the representation and face-ism biases. In-depth algorithmic debiasing with a specific focus on gender bias is overdue.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Communication and Media Studies (ICMB)

UniBE Contributor:

Makhortykh, Mykola, Urman, Aleksandra

Subjects:

000 Computer science, knowledge & systems
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 360 Social problems & social services

ISSN:

1461-7315

Publisher:

Sage

Language:

English

Submitter:

Mykola Makhortykh

Date Deposited:

21 Jun 2022 09:14

Last Modified:

19 May 2024 02:11

Publisher DOI:

10.1177/14614448221100699

Uncontrolled Keywords:

algorithm audit, search engine, web search, gender, bias

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/170754

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/170754

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