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Psychological Safety

Question: To what extent do community members feel safe within a community, including adding contributions, influencing change, bringing their authentic selves, and generally participating in the project?

Overview

Psychological safety measures the extent to which community members feel secure to participate authentically without fear of negative repercussions. This includes the freedom to ask questions, propose ideas, contribute skills, and provide feedback within an open source project. Communities with high psychological safety enable members to fully engage, fostering an environment of trust and mutual respect. Such environments are critical for community health, as they encourage diverse participation and retention of contributors from varied backgrounds, strengthening the project's resilience and adaptability.

A psychologically safe environment helps address Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) issues by supporting contributors in feeling included, valued, and respected. This metric sheds light on the presence of inclusive practices, effective conflict resolution mechanisms, and leadership's transparency—all of which contribute to sustaining a welcoming and innovative community.

Want to Know More?

Click to read more about this metric.

Data Collection Strategies

Here are example questions to assess the psychological safety of open source project contributors and maintainers:

  1. Have you observed any of the following in an open source project?

    • Answer options: Yes/No. If yes, select all that apply:
      • (1) Lack of response to contributions or questions
      • (2) Rejection of contributions without explanation
      • (3) Dismissive responses to contributions or questions
      • (4) Incomplete or difficult documentation
      • (5) Conflict or tension between contributors
      • (6) Language or content that made you feel unwelcome (e.g., profanity, racist jokes, sexual imagery)

  2. Have you witnessed any of the following behaviors directed at another person?

    • Answer options: Yes/No. If yes, select all that apply:
      • (1) Hostility or rudeness
      • (2) Name-calling
      • (3) Threats of violence
      • (4) Impersonation
      • (5) Sustained harassment
      • (6) Harassment across multiple platforms
      • (7) Stalking
      • (8) Unsolicited sexual advances or comments
      • (9) Stereotyping based on demographics
      • (10) Doxxing (malicious publishing of personal information)
      • (11) Other (please describe)

  3. Have you experienced any of the above behaviors directed at you?

    • Answer options: Yes/No. If yes, select all that apply from question 2.

3a. When thinking of the last time you experienced harassment, how did you respond? Choose all that apply.

  • (1) Asked the user to stop
  • (2) Solicited support from community members
  • (3) Blocked the harassing user
  • (4) Reported the incident to project maintainers
  • (5) Reported the incident to hosting service or ISP
  • (6) Consulted legal counsel
  • (7) Contacted law enforcement
  • (8) Other (please describe)
  • (9) Did not react / ignored the incident

3b. On a scale of 1-5, how effective were your responses?

  • Use a Likert scale with the following options:
    • 1: Not effective
    • 2: Slightly effective
    • 3: Somewhat effective
    • 4: Mostly effective
    • 5: Completely effective
  1. As a result of experiencing or witnessing harassment, which of the following actions did you take?
    • (1) Stopped contributing
    • (2) Contributed under a pseudonym
    • (3) Preferred private collaboration
    • (4) Changed or deleted username
    • (5) Changed online presence
    • (6) Suggested a Code of Conduct
    • (7) Publicly discussed with community members
    • (8) Privately discussed with community members
    • (9) Made offline life changes (e.g., stopped attending meetups)
    • (10) Other (please describe)
    • (11) None of the above

Additional questions:

  • Do you feel that private details shared with other contributors or leaders are kept confidential?
  • Do you feel project leadership values participant safety?
  • Do you feel leadership values transparency?
  • Do you feel leadership is open to critical feedback on trust and safety?
  • Does leadership address areas in the code that could be misused for abuse?
  • Did the community support fixing these issues?

Filters

  • Demographic segments
  • Role of contributor (e.g., code, community management)
  • Length of time in the community

Visualizations

None Provided


References

Contributors

  • Elizabeth Barron
  • Matt Germonprez
  • Kevin Lumbard
  • Lauren Phipps
  • Dawn Foster
  • Matt Cantu
  • Lucas Gonze
  • Justin W. Flory
  • Emily Brown
  • Amy Marrich
  • Trisha Rajaram
  • Ruth Ikegah
  • Sean Goggins
  • Georg Link
  • Yigakpoa L. Samuel

Additional Information

To edit this metric please submit a Change Request here. To reference this metric in software or publications please use this stable URL: https://chaoss.community/?p=3544