How editing Wikipedia pages could make for the 'perfect article': Process encourages healthy debate among people with different political views, Harvard expert says

  • Editors from political extremes work together to create a more accurate article  
  • Fierce but civilised debate leads to no editorial bias and better articles 
  • Researchers say it is a productive system for a large volume of users 
  • Social media is less productive as people aren't willing to engage in debate 

Wikipedia pages are refined and made more accurate by people striking up a healthy debate, despite having very different political views, an expert says.

The site allows people to openly edit and change articles on a host of different subject matters, but there is only ever one page available per topic. 

This, scientists say, means people are willing to overcome their political leanings and any ideological differences to ensure the article has no editorial bias. 

Different opinions on a topic require clear communication and this improves the quality of work when people are working towards a common goal. 

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Wikipedia allows people to openly edit and change articles on a host of different topics, but there is only ever one page available per topic. This, scientists say, means people are willing to overcome their political leaning for the good of the article (pictured)

Misha Teplitskiy at Harvard University led the research and told New Scientist: 'On Twitter, if you don't like the climate change debate, you can go off to your own echo chamber.

'On Wikipedia, if you want to talk about climate change, there is only one place to do it.'

The study was published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour and ranked people who edited a Wikipedia page on a scale of -1 to +1. 

This ranged from very liberal to very conservative based on the type of articles they were editing. 

For example, the page for Margaret Thatcher received 11,813 edits with the users having an average score of 0.068.

This research was then combined with analysis of the Wikipedia forums where editors discussed potential changes to articles. 

It uncovered that ferocious debates centred around a wildly different world view increases the focus of a debate and produces a better piece of work.

Due to the collective's singular goal it generated civil discussions bereft of any editorial bias. 

The political leaning of Wikipedia page editors ranged from -1 to +1 based on their articles they changed. For example, the page for Margaret Thatcher (pictured) received 11,813 edits and they had an average score of 0.068

The political leaning of Wikipedia page editors ranged from -1 to +1 based on their articles they changed. For example, the page for Margaret Thatcher (pictured) received 11,813 edits and they had an average score of 0.068

Experts say this approach is in stark opposition to the approach taken on social media sites, like Twitter and Facebook.

When a big news story breaks, social networks are often awash with misleading information as people either inadvertently, or deliberately, share the story.

This creates what is known as an 'echo chamber', where people have the tendency to look for news that confirms what they already believe.

This in turn creates a network of like-minded people who will spread these common sources and accept them as truth.

Consumers of both scientific and conspiracy information engage in this type of behaviour, but the spread of unproven rumours can lead to naïve social responses.

Once an idea has been accepted as truth by an individual, it will spread rapidly throughout the 'community of interest.

WHO HAS TWITTER BANNED IN THE PAST?

Twitter announced in November 2017 it would begin banning accounts affiliated with 'hate groups'.

In March, former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson was banned for violating hate speech rules

In March, former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson was banned for violating hate speech rules

The news followed years of criticism from users that the site allowed neo-nazi, white supremacist and other extremist groups to spread abusive messages.

Twitter suspended the accounts of several leaders of the far-right group Britain First in December 2017 for breaking its rules on hate speech.

In March 2018, former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson was banned for violating rules governing 'hateful conduct'.

The site announced it would soon undertake stronger measures to crack down on online trolls in May.

Despite sweeping bans, the site has come under criticism for not doing enough to purge itself of abusive users.

In July 2018, actor Seth Rogan lashed out at Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for continuing to verify the accounts of white supremacists.

He tweeted: 'I've been DMing with @Jack about his bizarre need to verify white supremacists on his platform for the last 8 months or so, and after all the exchanges, I’ve reached a conclusion: the dude simply does not seem to give a f**k.'

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Wikipedia encourages healthy debate among people with different political views

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