Exploring Systematic Bias through Article Deletions on Wikipedia from a Behavioral Perspective

Abstract

The gender gap in participation on Wikipedia is well established. The impacts of the participation bias on content may be expressed through a number of different behaviors. This research considers potential content biases that may result from efforts to delete content. We collect deletion data on a sample of article pages selected based on a method designed to identify content of likely interest to a specific group of people; men and women in this case. The analysis illustrates that there does not appear to be a systematic bias resulting in more deletions or nominations for deletions against content of likely interest to women. We consider how these results improve our understanding of bias and the ways peer production systems can mitigate the potential for biases.

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