提出可分解线性模型公平性偏见的后处理方法
Decomposing Direct and Indirect Biases in Linear Models under Demographic Parity Constraint
- 通过后处理框架解析敏感属性与相关特征的直接/间接偏见
- 无需重新训练即可揭示偏见在特征间的转移与分布
- 适合模型审计、公平性评估及负责任部署场景
线性模型因简洁和可解释性被广泛用于高风险决策。然而,当引入如群体均等性这样的公平约束时,其对模型系数的影响及预测偏见在特征间的分布仍不透明。现有方法常依赖强假设或忽略敏感属性的作用,实用性受限。本文扩展了Chzhen & Schreuder (2022) 和 Fukuchi & Sakuma (2023) 的工作,提出一种可应用于任意线性模型的后处理框架,能将最终偏见分解为敏感属性的直接偏见和相关特征的间接偏见。该方法解析了群体均等性如何重塑每个特征的系数,包括敏感与非敏感特征。这实现了公平干预的透明化、特征级解读,并揭示偏见可能通过相关变量持续存在或转移。本框架无需重训练,为模型审计与缓解提供可操作洞察。在合成与真实数据集上的实验表明,该方法捕捉到先前工作遗漏的公平性动态,是负责任部署线性模型的实用且可解释工具。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Linear models are widely used in high-stakes decision-making due to their simplicity and interpretability. Yet when fairness constraints such as demographic parity are introduced, their effects on model coefficients, and thus on how predictive bias is distributed across features, remain opaque. Existing approaches on linear models often rely on strong and unrealistic assumptions, or overlook the explicit role of the sensitive attribute, limiting their practical utility for fairness assessment. We extend the work of (Chzhen and Schreuder, 2022) and (Fukuchi and Sakuma, 2023) by proposing a post-processing framework that can be applied on top of any linear model to decompose the resulting bias into direct (sensitive-attribute) and indirect (correlated-features) components. Our method analytically characterizes how demographic parity reshapes each model coefficient, including those of both sensitive and non-sensitive features. This enables a transparent, feature-level interpretation of fairness interventions and reveals how bias may persist or shift through correlated variables. Our framework requires no retraining and provides actionable insights for model auditing and mitigation. Experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate that our method captures fairness dynamics missed by prior work, offering a practical and interpretable tool for responsible deployment of linear models.
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