BHEISR: Nudging from Bias to Balance -- Promoting Belief Harmony by Eliminating Ideological Segregation in Knowledge-based Recommendations

TL;DR

This paper introduces BHEISR, a novel intermediate agency that uses nudging principles to reduce ideological segregation in recommendation systems, promoting belief diversity and user engagement.

Contribution

The paper presents BHEISR, a new model that integrates nudging with user feedback to effectively mitigate filter bubbles and enhance recommendation diversity.

Findings

BHEISR outperforms baseline models in reducing filter bubble effects.

The model successfully balances user beliefs and preferences.

Experimental results demonstrate improved diversity and reduced bias.

Abstract

In the realm of personalized recommendation systems, the increasing concern is the amplification of belief imbalance and user biases, a phenomenon primarily attributed to the filter bubble. Addressing this critical issue, we introduce an innovative intermediate agency (BHEISR) between users and existing recommendation systems to attenuate the negative repercussions of the filter bubble effect in extant recommendation systems. The main objective is to strike a belief balance for users while minimizing the detrimental influence caused by filter bubbles. The BHEISR model amalgamates principles from nudge theory while upholding democratic and transparent principles. It harnesses user-specific category information to stimulate curiosity, even in areas users might initially deem uninteresting. By progressively stimulating interest in novel categories, the model encourages users to broaden their belief horizons and explore the information they typically overlook. Our model is time-sensitive and operates on a user feedback loop. It utilizes the existing recommendation algorithm of the model and incorporates user feedback from the prior time frame. This approach endeavors to transcend the constraints of the filter bubble, enrich recommendation diversity, and strike a belief balance among users while also catering to user preferences and system-specific business requirements. To validate the effectiveness and reliability of the BHEISR model, we conducted a series of comprehensive experiments with real-world datasets. These experiments compared the performance of the BHEISR model against several baseline models using nearly 200 filter bubble-impacted users as test subjects. Our experimental results conclusively illustrate the superior performance of the BHEISR model in mitigating filter bubbles and balancing user perspectives.