Hidden Ethics in XR Research: A Five-Year Scoping Review of ISMAR
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Abstract:
Extended Reality (XR) technologies are increasingly deployed across domains. However, despite growing calls for Responsible XR, it remains unclear whether ethical considerations are explicitly addressed in XR research or appear implicitly within technical problem formulations. We conducted a scoping review of 567 papers from the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) proceedings (2021-2025) and identified 37 papers containing ethically relevant themes. We analyzed how "ethically charged" concepts appear in XR research and whether they correspond to explicit ethical reflection or are framed as technical challenges. We found that explicit ethical engagement is rare. Ethical concerns are typically embedded within technical discourse, particularly in work on user experience optimization, safety and risk mitigation, behavioral influence, and data practices. We synthesized these patterns into a framework that addresses the "hideouts of ethics" in XR research, and, drawing on three major schools of moral philosophy, we outlined recommendations for integrating ethical reflection into XR design and evaluation.
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