Computational and cognitive infrastructures of stigma: empowering identity in social computing and gaming

• Authors: D. Fox Harrell
• Venue: Proceedings of the seventh ACM conference on Creativity and cognition
• Year: 2009

Computing technologies such as games, social networking sites, and virtual environments often reproduce forms of social stigma encountered in everyday real life, as well as introducing new forms of stigma. When users represent themselves via avatars, characters, and profiles, norms for behavior and group affiliations are established that may introduce prejudices, stereotypes, and associated social ills found in the real world. To empower users against these effects, this paper presents technologies designed to: (1) provide dynamic means of identity representation while avoiding stigmatizing norms, and (2) provide for critical reflection on stigmatizing identity infrastructures found in other systems. The theory and technologies developed with these aims is encapsulated under the rubric of the Advanced Identity Representation (AIR) Project that initiated in the Imagination, Computation, and Expression Laboratory (ICE Lab; D. Fox Harrell, Director) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This work has a basis in the cognitive science foundations of categorization and metaphor-based bias, and study of social classification infrastructures from sociology of science. Using this theoretical framework, this paper provides a model to reveal a set of inadequacies of many current identity infrastructures in social computing and gaming systems for supporting the needs of people in marginalized categories. As results, several social networking systems and games developed in the ICE Lab to empower users in creating computational identities and/or critiquing the phenomenon of stigma in these applications are presented.