A GA-based algorithm meets the fair ranking problem

Abstract Ranking items is a vital component in almost every application dealing with selecting the most suitable items among a pool of candidates. Yet, specific individuals or groups may be systematically disadvantaged in getting the opportunity of appearing on the ranking list. The fair ranking problem aims at mitigating the bias imposed on protected groups (i.e., disadvantaged groups) while preserving the total quality of the ranking list as high as possible. FA*IR is one of the existing algorithms, which finds the exact solutions for only one protected group, considering a given minimum number of protected items at every prefix of a ranking list. However, when an item belongs to more than two protected groups achieving optimal solutions gets more difficult. This paper proposes an algorithm called FARGO, a fair ranking algorithm based on the genetic algorithm (GA) enhanced by the simulated annealing (SA) that is able to handle any number of protected groups. A new objective function is also proposed by incorporating the main goals of the problem, which is utilized as FARGO's fitness function. Furthermore, a novel evaluation metric named Expected Gain Ratio (EGR) is introduced to assess a fair ranking algorithm's output. Experimental results on real-world datasets demonstrate that FARGO attains comparative performance with FA*IR for one protected group and finds near-optimal solutions for more than one protected group in terms of NDCG and EGR. Note that involving other concepts such as exposure is not a matter of this paper and can be an interesting subject for further studies.