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We present a case-study of using Ethnographic Experiential Futures (EXF) to surface underlying divergences, tensions and dilemmas implicit in views of the futures of ”social agents” among professional researchers familiar with the state of the art. Based on expert interviews, we designed three ”letters from the future,” research probes that were mailed to 15 participants working in the field, to encounter and respond to. We lay out the elements and design choices that shaped these probes, present our remote and asynchronous study design, and discuss lessons learned about the use of EXF. We find that this form of hybrid design/futures intervention has the potential to provide professional communities with opportunities to grapple with potential ethical dilemmas early on. However, the knowledge and tools for doing so are still in the making. Our contribution is a step towards advancing the potential benefits of experiential futures for technology designers and researchers.
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This content will become publicly available on April 1, 2026
Six-decade research bias towards fancy and familiar bird species
Human implicit biases towards visually appealing and familiar stimuli are well documented and rooted in our brains’ reward systems. For example, humans are drawn to charismatic, familiar organisms, but less is known about whether such biases permeate research choices among biologists, who strive for objectivity. The factors driving research effort, such as aesthetics, logistics and species’ names, are poorly understood. We report that, from 1965 to 2020, nearly half of the variation in publication trends among 293 North American male passerine and near-passerine birds was explained by three factors subject to human bias: aesthetic salience (visual appeal), range size (familiarity) and the number of universities within ranges (accessibility). We also demonstrate that endangered birds and birds featured on journal covers had higher aesthetic salience, and birds with eponymous names were studied about half as much as those not named after humans. Thus, ornithological knowledge, and decisions based thereon, is heavily skewed towards fancy, familiar species. This knowledge disparity feeds a cycle of public interest, environmental policy, conservation, funding opportunities and scientific narratives, shrouding potentially important information in the proverbial plumage of drab, distant, disregarded species. The unintended consequences of biologists’ choices may exacerbate organismal inequalities amid biodiversity declines and limit opportunities for scientific inquiry.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1950636
- PAR ID:
- 10626739
- Publisher / Repository:
- Royal Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Volume:
- 292
- Issue:
- 2044
- ISSN:
- 1471-2954
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- bibliometric scientific knowledge animal charisma honorific common name plumage colour taxonomic bias conservation priority ornithology avian ecology, species names
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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