Remarkably captivating study: “How WEIRD is Usable Privacy and Security Research?” authored by Ayako A. Hasegawa, Daisuke Inoue, and Mitsuaki Akiyama:

Summary: Within fields focused on human aspects like human-computer interaction (HCI) and psychology, scholars have raised concerns that most participants originate from WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) nations. This WEIRD bias may obstruct the comprehension of varied groups and their cultural distinctions. The field of usable privacy and security (UPS) has adopted numerous research techniques from human factor research areas. We performed a literature analysis to gauge the proportion of participant samples in UPS publications that were from WEIRD nations and to examine the methodologies and research themes present in each user study that engaged Western or non-Western participants. Our findings revealed that the bias toward WEIRD nations in UPS is more pronounced than that in HCI. Geographic and linguistic obstacles in the research methodologies and participant recruitment could compel researchers to conduct user studies in a localized context. Moreover, numerous papers failed to disclose participant demographics, which might impede the replication of the studies presented, resulting in low reproducibility. To enhance geographic variety, we propose recommendations including promoting replication studies, addressing geographic and linguistic challenges in study/recruitment methods, and encouraging research on topics relevant to non-WEIRD populations.

The takeaway might be that human elements and usability need to be tailored to specific contexts.