Title: Modeling Discrimination with Causal Abstraction Show Chinese title

Title: 用因果抽象进行歧视建模

Abstract: A person is directly racially discriminated against only if her race caused her worse treatment. This implies that race is an attribute sufficiently separable from other attributes to isolate its causal role. But race is embedded in a nexus of social factors that resist isolated treatment. If race is socially constructed, in what sense can it cause worse treatment? Some propose that the perception of race, rather than race itself, causes worse treatment. Others suggest that since causal models require \textit{modularity}, i.e. the ability to isolate causal effects, attempts to causally model discrimination are misguided. This paper addresses the problem differently. We introduce a framework for reasoning about discrimination, in which race is a high-level \textit{abstraction} of lower-level features. In this framework, race can be modeled as itself causing worse treatment. Modularity is ensured by allowing assumptions about social construction to be precisely and explicitly stated, via an alignment between race and its constituents. Such assumptions can then be subjected to normative and empirical challenges, which lead to different views of when discrimination occurs. By distinguishing constitutive and causal relations, the abstraction framework pinpoints disagreements in the current literature on modeling discrimination, while preserving a precise causal account of discrimination. Show Chinese abstract

Abstract: 只有当她的种族导致了更差的对待时，她才会直接遭受种族歧视。 这表明，种族是一个足够可分离的属性，可以将其因果作用单独分离出来。 但种族嵌入在一系列社会因素中，这些因素抗拒被孤立处理。 如果种族是社会建构的，那么在什么意义上它能导致更差的对待呢？ 一些人提出，对种族的感知而非种族本身会导致更差的对待。 另一些人则认为，由于因果模型需要\textit{模块性}，即隔离因果效应的能力，试图对歧视进行因果建模是错误的。 本文以不同的方式解决这个问题。 我们引入了一个关于歧视推理的框架，在该框架中，种族是低级特征的高层\textit{抽象}。 在这个框架中，种族可以被建模为自身导致更差的对待。 通过将种族与其组成部分之间进行对齐，可以精确且明确地陈述关于社会建构的假设，从而确保模块化。 然后可以对这些假设进行规范和实证挑战，这会导致对歧视何时发生的不同观点。 通过区分构成关系和因果关系，抽象框架指出了当前关于歧视建模文献中的分歧，同时保留了对歧视的精确因果描述。