ABSTRACT
At first glance, the manner in which culture has been scoped in this book does not seem to relate to how researchers and practitioners might assist in providing information to understand and answer legal questions that arise, especially as these legal questions relate to the design, evaluation, and use of systems, processes, and products. As stated in Chapter 1, we have bounded culture using a cultural psychology definition that highlights common history, normative practices, geography, language, beliefs and customs, power arrangements, and kinship as the attributes of culture on which we focus (Veroff and Goldgerger, 1995). These attributes do, in fact, play a role in how individuals process information and interact with systems because they determine the content, representations, and mental models that comprise the complex networks and schemas in long-term memory; hence the labeling of culture as a meta-schema. Understanding culture as a meta-schema helps to frame how we approach forensic analysis of cases and events to identify design issues that might have differential impacts on users from different cultures. Certainly, as engineers, psychologists, and designers across the spectrum, user capabilities, preferences, and experience can vary because of differences in the diffusion of technologies, technology access, and lived experience. While there may be the rare occasion of user attributes that seem to be universal, the assumption that all users bring a common set of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors to any interaction is a misconception, and one that, if applied to how systems and products are engineered and marketed, might very well lead to outcomes that result in litigation. Misguided or culturally incompatible design can have negative consequences for certain groups. Some examples of how
Product Design ....................................................................................................... 188 Risk Perception ...................................................................................................... 191 Allocation of Responsibility .................................................................................. 193 Applications ........................................................................................................... 195 Case Study ............................................................................................................. 196 Noticed and Read ................................................................................................... 198 Comprehension ...................................................................................................... 198 Compliance ............................................................................................................ 199 References .............................................................................................................. 199
culture influences our work in human factors forensics can be found in such areas as product design, risk perception and allocation of responsibility by jurors.
