# Reflexive Design for Fairness and Other Human Values in Formal Models

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.05084 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.05084/

## Key facts

- Cited by 11 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 10 Oct 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [Responsible AI Pattern Catalogue: A Collection of Best Practices for AI Governance and Engineering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.04963/) (2022)
- [Mimetic Models: Ethical Implications of AI that Acts Like You](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.09394/) (2022)
- [Value Imprint: A Technique for Auditing the Human Values Embedded in RLHF Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.11937/) (2024)
- [Towards a Roadmap on Software Engineering for Responsible AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.08594/) (2022)
- [It's Not Fairness, and It's Not Fair: The Failure of Distributional Equality and the Promise of Relational Equality in Complete-Information Hiring Games](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.05602/) (2022)
- [Grasping AI: experiential exercises for designers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.01282/) (2023)
- [Designing Data: Proactive Data Collection and Iteration for Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.10319/) (2023)
- [Machine Learning practices and infrastructures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.06518/) (2023)
- [Building Bridges: Generative Artworks to Explore AI Ethics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.13901/) (2021)
- [Intuitions of Compromise: Utilitarianism vs. Contractualism](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.05496/) (2024)
- [Prototyping Digital Social Spaces through Metaphor-Driven Design: Translating Spatial Concepts into an Interactive Social Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.02759/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Algorithms and other formal models purportedly incorporating human values like fairness have grown increasingly popular in computer science. In response to sociotechnical challenges in the use of these models, designers and researchers have taken widely divergent positions on how formal models incorporating aspects of human values should be used: encouraging their use, moving away from them, or ignoring the normative consequences altogether. In this paper, we seek to resolve these divergent positions by identifying the main conceptual limits of formal modeling, and develop four reflexive values--value fidelity, appropriate accuracy, value legibility, and value contestation--vital for incorporating human values adequately into formal models. We then provide a brief methodology for reflexively designing formal models incorporating human values.