Automating Administration? Neutrality and its Limits in Technology-Mediated Decisions

Abstract

Appendices as supplemental documents. "Psychic X-Ray: Jigsaw," "… Fish Bowl," and "…Clockwork," oils on 16" x 20" stretched canvasses. Vera Katelyn Wilde, Dissertation-Chapter 1, p. 1/201 Neutral Competence? Polygraphy and Technology-Mediated Administrative Decisions How neutral are decision-making technologies such as lie detection in security contexts, medical diagnosis tools in healthcare, and welfare benefits administration tools in social work? The growth of bureaucracy is a core characteristic of 20 th century American politics. Administrative decision-making technologies seem to constrain bureaucratic discretion: they seem relatively rule-bound, objective, and thus bias-free. Yet existing evidence does not actually establish the neutrality of those technologies. This matters, because these technologies affect most Americans' life chances in terms of life, liberty, and the means to pursue happiness. As denizens of the information age, we already know that increases in the number of such technologies and their use are steady and large: technology pervades modern life. Specifically, as a series of recent whistleblower leaks have established, we are living in a post-9/11 era in which means for mass data collection (the Big Data revolution) have changed the parameters of technology-mediated government. But mainstream public discourse is just beginning to incorporate this knowledge, and scholars do not know how neutral administrative technologies in general really are. Decision-making technologies might be biased in three sorts of ways. First, they might systematically institutionalize cognitive biases, perhaps outside the conscious awareness of the people using them. For example, street-level bureaucrats such as police, doctors, and social workers might manifest racial bias, confirmation bias, and the combination of the two (intersectional bias), in interpreting information used to make technology-mediated decisions. Specifically, due to associations between blacks and Vera Katelyn Wilde, Dissertation-Chapter 2, p. 13/201 Truth, Lies, and Polygraph Tape: Earlier Development of the Contemporary Surveillance State "It is important to create a picture of objectivity, capability, being in charge, and above all, having the ability to ascertain if the examinee is responding truthfully or deceptively"-Stan Abrams, The Complete Polygraph Handbook, 1989. Truth, Lies, and Polygraph Tape: Later Development of the Contemporary Surveillance State "The physiology of the detainees was usually horrible due to their lack of sleep, eating, depression, and extreme temperatures."-Air Force internal document comment from an anonymous American polygrapher of Abu Ghraib detainees, on one reason why he believed polygraphs in this context to be inaccurate.