Bias quotient measurement and debiasing for recommendation engines

1. A method for debiasing a recommendation engine, comprising:

receiving, at a recommendation engine, a search query associated with a user profile;

generating a result set of items of content based on the search query;

generating, based on the result set, a bias score for a content attribute;

receiving, at the recommendation engine, a plurality of search queries associated with the user profile;

for each of the plurality of search queries associated with the user profile:

(i) generating a respective result set of items of content; and

(ii) generating a respective bias score based on the respective result set;

generating a time-averaged bias score for the content attribute based on computing an average of all the respective bias scores generated for the plurality of search queries over a period of time;

determining, based on the bias score and the time-averaged bias score, whether a bias is signaled for the content attribute; and

outputting, for display via a computing device, the result set or a debiased result set based on a result of the determination of whether the bias is signaled.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

in response to a determination that the bias is signaled, determining whether the bias is correlated with the user profile; and

in response to a determination that the bias is correlated with the user profile:

modifying the result set to generate the debiased result set; and

outputting, for display via the computing device, the debiased result set.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the modifying the result set to generate the debiased result set comprises adding to the result set an item of content that is uncorrelated with the signaled bias.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the adding to the result set the item of content that is uncorrelated with the signaled bias comprises adding to the result set an item of content that is orthogonal or complementary to the signaled bias and is applicable to the user profile.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

storing, in a memory, a rule indicating a type of user profile persona and a content attribute applicable to the type of user profile persona;

determining whether the user profile associated with the search query corresponds to the stored type of user profile persona; and

in response to determining that the user profile associated with the search query corresponds to the stored type of user profile persona, determining whether the item of content to be added to the result set is applicable to the user profile persona based on the stored rule.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

storing, in a memory, a rule identifying a content attribute that is orthogonal or complementary to the content attribute for which the bias score was generated; and

identifying, as the item of content to be added to the result set, the item of content having the content attribute that the stored rule indicates is orthogonal or complementary to the content attribute.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

in response to a determination that the bias is signaled, determining whether the bias is correlated with the user profile; and

in response to a determination that the bias is uncorrelated with the user profile, outputting, for display via the computing device, the result set.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the bias score comprises computing a quotient based on a number of the items of content in the result set having an attribute and a total number of the items of content in the result set.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein determining whether the bias is signaled for the content attribute comprises determining whether the quotient exceeds a threshold quotient stored in memory.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the period of time is configured as a setting.

11. A system for debiasing a recommendation engine, comprising:

a communication port configured to receive, at a recommendation engine, a search query associated with a user profile and a plurality of search queries associated with the user profile;

memory configured to store instructions; and

processing circuitry configured to execute the instructions to:

generate a result set of items of content based on the search query;

generate, based on the result set, a bias score for a content attribute;

for each of the plurality of search queries associated with the user profile:

(i) generate a respective result set of items of content; and

(ii) generate a respective bias score based on the respective result set;

generate a time-averaged bias score for the content attribute based on computing an average of all the respective bias scores generated for the plurality of search queries over a period of time;

determine, based on the bias score and the time-averaged bias score, whether a bias is signaled for the content attribute; and

output, for display via a computing device, the result set or a debiased result set based on a result of the determination of whether the bias is signaled.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

in response to a determination that the bias is signaled, determine whether the bias is correlated with the user profile; and

in response to a determination that the bias is correlated with the user profile:

modify the result set to generate the debiased result set; and

output, for display via the computing device, the debiased result set.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to modify the result set to generate the debiased result set by adding to the result set an item of content that is uncorrelated with the signaled bias.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to add to the result set the item of content that is uncorrelated with the signaled bias by adding to the result set an item of content that is orthogonal or complementary to the signaled bias and is applicable to the user profile.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

store, in the memory, a rule indicating a type of user profile persona and a content attribute applicable to the type of user profile persona;

determine whether the user profile associated with the search query corresponds to the stored type of user profile persona; and

in response to determining that the user profile associated with the search query corresponds to the stored type of user profile persona, determine whether the item of content to be added to the result set is applicable to the user profile persona based on the stored rule.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

store, in the memory, a rule identifying a content attribute that is orthogonal or complementary to the content attribute for which the bias score was generated; and

identify, as the item of content to be added to the result set, the item of content having the content attribute that the stored rule indicates is orthogonal or complementary to the content attribute.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

in response to a determination that the bias is signaled, determine whether the bias is correlated with the user profile; and

in response to a determination that the bias is uncorrelated with the user profile, output the result set for display via the computing device.

18. The system of claim 11 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to generate the bias score by computing a quotient based on a number of the items of content in the result set having an attribute and a total number of the items of content in the result set.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to determine whether the bias is signaled for the content attribute by determining whether the quotient exceeds a threshold quotient stored in memory.

20. The system of claim 11 , wherein the period of time is configured as a setting.