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Contributing to Behaviour Lab

Thank you for your interest in contributing! This project requires ethical responsibility from all contributors.

⚠️ Before Contributing

1. Read and Agree to Ethical Requirements

You MUST read and agree to:

By contributing, you certify that:

  • ✅ Your contributions will be used ethically
  • ✅ You'll respect the ethical framework
  • ✅ You understand the responsibility involved
  • ✅ You agree to the license terms

2. Understand the Mission

This project aims to:

  • Advance understanding of behavior engineering
  • Establish ethical standards for the field
  • Enable defensive awareness against manipulation
  • Support beneficial applications (education, therapy, research)

This project does NOT support:

  • Commercial manipulation
  • Exploitation of vulnerabilities
  • Dark patterns or deception
  • Coercion or removal of choice

🤝 How to Contribute

Types of Contributions Welcome

1. Research Contributions ✅

  • Additional evidence from literature
  • Replication studies and results
  • Meta-analyses and systematic reviews
  • Case studies (ethical applications)

2. Ethical Framework Improvements ✅✅ PRIORITY

  • Strengthen safeguards
  • Identify potential misuse scenarios
  • Propose additional protections
  • Improve transparency mechanisms

3. Documentation ✅

  • Clarify existing content
  • Add examples (ethical ones)
  • Improve readability
  • Translate to other languages (maintaining ethics)

4. Educational Materials ✅

  • Teaching guides for courses
  • Workshop materials
  • Tutorial videos
  • FAQ additions

5. Defensive Tools ✅✅ ENCOURAGED

  • Help people recognize when they're being primed/nudged
  • Browser extensions to detect manipulation
  • Educational tools to build awareness
  • Countermeasure techniques

6. Code/Implementation ⚠️ RESTRICTED

  • Must serve ethical purposes only
  • Requires extra review and approval
  • See "Code Contributions" section below

📝 Contribution Process

Step 1: Discuss First

Before making substantial changes:

  1. Open a Discussion (not an Issue initially)

    • Describe what you want to contribute
    • Explain how it aligns with ethical mission
    • Get feedback from community
    • Ensure it's wanted/needed

  2. Get Maintainer Approval

    • For substantial contributions
    • Especially for anything touching implementation
    • Helps avoid wasted effort

Step 2: Create Your Contribution

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a branch: git checkout -b ethical-improvement/your-feature
  3. Make your changes
  4. Test thoroughly (if code)
  5. Update documentation if needed

Step 3: Ethical Review Checklist

Before submitting, ask yourself:

  • Does this advance the ethical mission?
  • Could this be misused? If so, have I added safeguards?
  • Am I strengthening (not weakening) ethical requirements?
  • Is this transparent about its intentions?
  • Does this respect user autonomy?
  • Have I documented any risks?
  • Would I be comfortable if this were used on me or my family?

Step 4: Submit Pull Request

Include in your PR description:

  1. What you changed/added
  2. Why it's valuable
  3. How it maintains/strengthens ethics
  4. Risks and how you mitigated them
  5. Testing you performed (if applicable)

Template:

## What
[Describe your contribution]

## Why
[Explain the value and alignment with mission]

## Ethical Considerations
[Address any ethical concerns and safeguards]

## Testing
[If code: how you tested; if docs: how you verified accuracy]

## Checklist
- [ ] I've read LICENSE.md and agree to terms
- [ ] This contribution strengthens (or maintains) ethical requirements
- [ ] I've documented any potential risks
- [ ] I've updated relevant documentation
- [ ] I've tested my changes (if applicable)

Step 5: Review Process

Your PR will be reviewed for:

  • Technical quality
  • Ethical alignment (primary concern)
  • Documentation completeness
  • Risk assessment
  • Community feedback

Approval requires:

  • Maintainer review and approval
  • Community feedback period (for substantial changes)
  • Ethical framework compliance verification

💻 Code Contributions (Extra Requirements)

Allowed Code Contributions:

✅ Defensive/Educational Tools

  • Manipulation detection
  • Awareness building
  • Transparency tools
  • Consent management systems

✅ Measurement/Analysis

  • Non-invasive analytics
  • Research tools for IRB-approved studies
  • Ethical outcome tracking

✅ Ethical Infrastructure

  • Consent forms
  • Opt-out mechanisms
  • Transparency displays
  • Audit logging

Restricted Code Contributions:

⚠️ Requires Extra Scrutiny:

  • User modeling/profiling
  • A/B testing frameworks
  • Priming implementation
  • Nudge execution engines

🚫 Generally NOT Accepted:

  • Covert manipulation tools
  • Dark pattern implementations
  • Exploitation of vulnerabilities
  • Consent-bypass mechanisms

Code Quality Requirements:

All code must:

  1. Include ethical use comments
  2. Have comprehensive documentation
  3. Include safeguards where applicable
  4. Be transparent about purpose
  5. Pass ethical review

Example ethical code header:

"""
[Module Name]

Purpose: [Clear description of what this does]

Ethical Use: This module is intended for [allowed use cases].
It MUST NOT be used for manipulation without informed consent.

Safeguards:
- [List built-in protections]

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 with Ethical Use Requirements
See LICENSE.md for full terms.
"""

📚 Documentation Contributions

What Makes Good Documentation:

✅ Clear and Accurate

  • Based on evidence
  • Properly cited
  • Up-to-date

✅ Ethically Framed

  • Emphasizes responsible use
  • Warns of risks
  • Provides safeguards

✅ Accessible

  • Multiple skill levels
  • Good examples
  • Visual aids where helpful

Documentation Standards:

  • Use Markdown formatting
  • Include references and citations
  • Add ethical warnings where appropriate
  • Proofread carefully
  • Consider multiple audiences

🔬 Research Contributions

Adding Research Findings:

Include:

  1. Citation: Full reference to source
  2. Evidence Quality: Replication status, sample size, etc.
  3. Relevance: How it relates to existing content
  4. Implications: What this means for the framework

Format:

### New Finding: [Title]

**Source:** [Full citation]
**Evidence Tier:** [HIGH/MODERATE/LOW]
**Replication Status:** [Successfully replicated / Failed replication / Not tested]

**Summary:**
[What was found]

**Implications:**
[How this affects our understanding]

**Integration:**
[Where this fits in the framework]

Reporting Replication Failures:

This is valuable! Science needs replication data.

Include:

  • Original study citation
  • Replication attempt citation
  • Outcome (failed/partial/successful)
  • Effect size comparison
  • Recommendations for evidence tier adjustment

🛡️ Reporting Misuse

If you discover misuse of this work:

  1. Document it: Screenshot, link, description
  2. Report it: [Email to be added] or private Discussion
  3. Don't amplify: Don't link to misuse publicly
  4. Suggest response: What should be done?

We take misuse seriously and will:

  • Investigate thoroughly
  • Contact violators directly
  • Update safeguards if needed
  • Consider legal action for severe cases
  • Publish lessons learned (anonymized)

🌟 Recognition

Contributors will be:

  • Listed in CONTRIBUTORS.md (if desired)
  • Acknowledged in relevant sections
  • Thanked in release notes
  • Cited in academic papers using this work

Exceptional contributions may receive:

  • Co-authorship on academic papers
  • Invited talks or presentations
  • Leadership roles in the project
  • Special recognition in community

❓ Questions?

Before contributing:

  • Read the docs thoroughly
  • Check existing Discussions
  • Search closed Issues/PRs
  • Look at past contributions for examples

Still unsure?

  • Open a Discussion with your question
  • Tag maintainers if urgent
  • Be specific about your concern
  • Err on the side of asking

🚫 Unacceptable Contributions

Will be rejected:

  • Weakening ethical requirements
  • Enabling dark patterns
  • Removing safeguards
  • Facilitating manipulation
  • Adding coercive features
  • Bypassing consent mechanisms
  • Exploiting vulnerabilities

May result in ban:

  • Intentional ethical violations
  • Persistent disregard for guidelines
  • Harassment of community members
  • Bad faith contributions
  • Misrepresentation of motives

📜 Legal Stuff

Contributor License Agreement

By contributing, you agree that:

  1. You own the contribution or have right to submit it
  2. You license it under the same terms as the project (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 + Ethical Requirements)
  3. You certify that the contribution complies with ethical requirements
  4. You understand that it will be publicly available
  5. You accept that maintainers may modify or reject it

Liability

  • Contributors are not liable for misuse by others
  • But contributors must not intentionally enable misuse
  • Act in good faith with ethical intentions
  • If you're unsure if something is okay, ask first

🎯 Contribution Priorities

Highest Priority:

  1. Strengthening ethical framework
  2. Defensive awareness tools
  3. Replication evidence updates
  4. Misuse prevention measures

High Priority: 5. Documentation improvements 6. Educational materials 7. Case studies (ethical applications) 8. Translation and accessibility

Medium Priority: 9. Code quality improvements 10. Testing and validation 11. Community building 12. Outreach materials

Lower Priority: 13. New features (unless ethically important) 14. Optimizations 15. Aesthetic changes

🤝 Community Values

We value:

  • Ethics above all - The mission is ethical behavior engineering
  • Transparency - Open discussion of tradeoffs and risks
  • Respect - For people and their autonomy
  • Evidence - Backed by research, not speculation
  • Responsibility - For the power these techniques represent
  • Collaboration - Building together, not competing
  • Learning - From successes and failures
  • Caution - Better safe than sorry with people's minds

🚀 Getting Started

Ready to contribute?

  1. ✅ Read LICENSE.md
  2. ✅ Read CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
  3. ✅ Read this document (CONTRIBUTING.md)
  4. ✅ Explore existing Discussions
  5. ✅ Introduce yourself
  6. ✅ Find something small to start
  7. ✅ Open a Discussion about your idea
  8. ✅ Get feedback and approval
  9. ✅ Make your contribution
  10. ✅ Submit a PR with ethical review completed

Thank you for contributing ethically!

Together we can ensure behavior engineering serves human wellbeing. 🧠