Another view of computer science ethics: Patterns of responses among computer scientists

Abstract Within the computer science community, issues of ethics have emerged as significant and critical concerns. However, as computer scientists, we have little empirical information about how we feel about computer science ethics. We review the literature related to our work: studies of the attitudes of computer scientists towards issues of ethics, studies of the effects of technical expertise on attitudes toward ethical issues, and studies of the effects of gender on attitudes toward ethical issues. We describe two studies of attitudes toward issues of ethics in computing. In Study I, we attempted to identify patterns of responses toward ethical issues in computer science, as well as the relationships between different levels of technical expertise and gender to patterns of responses. In Study II, we focused on changes in responses to ethical issues as computer science students gain technical expertise. We also investigated effects of gender on responses in Study II. We found that four patterns of responses occurred. We also demonstrated some differences in responses among subjects of different genders and levels of technical expertise.

[1]  H. Blalock,et al.  Applied multivariate analysis and experimental designs , 1975 .

[2]  Nancy Eisenberg,et al.  Sex Differences in Empathy and Related Capacities , 1983 .

[3]  Charles M. Judd,et al.  Political expertise and the structural mediators of candidate evaluations. , 1988 .

[4]  L. Kohlberg,et al.  The Philosophy Of Moral Development , 1982 .

[5]  M. David Ermann,et al.  Computers, ethics, & society , 1990 .

[6]  A. Pablo Iannone,et al.  Contemporary moral controversies in technology , 1987 .

[7]  Tom Forester,et al.  The Information Technology Revolution , 1985 .

[8]  John W. Snapper,et al.  Ethical Issues in the Use of Computers , 1985 .

[9]  Frederick Frankena,et al.  Facts, values, and technical expertise in a renewable energy siting dispute , 1983 .

[10]  R. Kirk.  Experimental Design: Procedures for the Behavioral Sciences , 1970 .

[11]  Carol Gilligan,et al.  Mapping the moral domain : a contribution of women's thinking to psychological theory and education , 1988 .

[12]  C. Gilligan.  In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Press) 1982. , 1982 .

[13]  Dorothy Nelkin.  Wisdom, Expertise, and the Application of Ethics , 1981 .

[14]  Keith Miller,et al.  Integrating Computer Ethics into the Computer Science Curriculum , 1988, Comput. Sci. Educ..

[15]  H. Harman.  Modern factor analysis , 1961 .

[16]  B ParkerDonn.  Self-assessment procedure IX , 1982 .

[17]  Dennis Child,et al.  The essentials of factor analysis , 1970 .

[18]  Guy B. Adams,et al.  Planners and public expectations , 1983 .

[19]  Eric A. Weiss,et al.  Self-assessment procedure IX: a self-assessment procedure dealing with ethics in computing , 1982, CACM.

[20]  Dorothy Nelkin,et al.  Controversy: Politics of Technical Decisions , 1979 .

[21]  Lawrence J. Walker,et al.  Sex Differences in the Development of Moral Reasoning: A Critical Review. , 1984 .

[22]  Susan H. Nycum,et al.  Computer crime , 1984, CACM.

[23]  Dorothy Nelkin,et al.  The Political Impact of Technical Expertise , 1975 .

[24]  J. Piaget,et al.  The Moral Judgement of the Child , 1977 .