No Spirituality Please, We’re HCI: Challenges for HCI Research on Religion and Spirituality

Paper Title

No Spirituality Please, We’re HCI: Challenges for HCI Research on Religion and Spirituality

Publication Info

• Topic area: Intersection of Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) and Religion/Spirituality (R/S)
• Keywords: HCI, religion, spirituality, techno-spirituality, design, marginalization, epistemic challenges, cultural bias, community building, interdisciplinary research

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Religion and spirituality (R/S) remain marginal in HCI research despite their centrality in billions of lives. Existing work is fragmented, lacks theoretical depth, and faces skepticism within the academic community.
• Significance: Addressing R/S in HCI is vital for understanding and designing technologies that reflect the diversity of human experiences, values, and practices.
• Motivation and related work: Prior reviews have highlighted the limited scope and marginality of R/S research in HCI, noting challenges such as definitional ambiguity, professional risks, and the dominance of Western perspectives. However, these reviews have not systematically explored the factors perpetuating this marginality or how to address them.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A comprehensive review of 206 ACM and IEEE publications (2013–2024) combined with a survey of R/S researchers in HCI (n = 19) to map the field, identify challenges, and propose ways forward.
• Novelty:
  1. Broadened scope by including both ACM and IEEE publications, capturing a more diverse range of R/S research in HCI.
  2. Empirical exploration of researcher experiences and challenges through a survey.
  3. Identification of new research strands, including harm mitigation.
  4. Critical analysis of epistemic and cultural barriers in HCI research on R/S.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted a scoping review using PRISMA guidelines, screening 1077 publications and narrowing to 206 relevant studies.
  • Analyzed publication trends, venues, geographic distribution, and thematic focus.
  • Surveyed corresponding authors of R/S publications to understand challenges, motivations, and visions for the field.
  • Synthesized findings through qualitative and quantitative analyses.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • R/S research in HCI has grown modestly, with 41 publications in 2024 compared to six in 2013.
  • Design-oriented work is the dominant mode of engagement, with “design” being the most frequent keyword (n = 49).
  • Eight research strands identified: practical (48.1%), experiential (30.1%), institutional (26.7%), community (24.8%), health (19.4%), education (15.0%), harm mitigation (10.2%), and society (8.7%).
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Broader inclusion of IEEE publications revealed distinct research communities and thematic differences compared to ACM.
  • Survey provided empirical evidence for challenges previously speculated in the literature, such as subjectivity, professional risk, and cultural bias.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Review: Systematic analysis of publication patterns, themes, and geographic distribution.
  • Survey: 12% response rate, with insights into challenges (e.g., marginalization, epistemic tensions) and aspirations (e.g., community building, diversification).
• Limitations and future work:
  • Limited by inclusion criteria and focus on anglophone venues.
  • Survey response rate was low, and participants were self-selecting.
  • Future work should address structural barriers, expand geographic and epistemic diversity, and foster cumulative knowledge-building.

Summary

This paper examines the marginality of religion and spirituality (R/S) research in HCI, identifying modest growth in the field but persistent challenges such as cultural bias, professional risks, and epistemic tensions. Through a review of 206 publications and a survey of researchers, the authors highlight the dominance of design-oriented work and propose three key directions for advancing the field: collaboration, diversification, and intellectual ambition. The findings underscore the need for institutional support, global inclusion, and deeper engagement with R/S as a vital domain of human experience. Addressing these challenges would enhance HCI’s inclusivity and capacity to reflect the diversity of human lives.