Behavioral studies of specific populations are extremely challenging things, as recruiting a set of participants that represent a true cross-section of the larger population is never easy. The mere willingness to participate in a study involves a necessary degree of self-selection within this population, which can seriously complicate behavioral studies—after all, it’s entirely possible that a willingness to take surveys is the product of one of the behavioral traits under examination. That’s why, even though a small survey can produce results with a high statistical confidence, it still may represent nothing more than a robust result within a non-representative group. All of that should serve as a precautionary background on a new survey of Wikipedia participants.
The short publication that describes these results is entitled, “Personality Characteristics of Wikipedia Members,” and the news isn’t especially good. Those contributing online feel that their true personality comes across better in the virtual environment; they also scored lower on a measure of agreeableness, and aren’t especially open to new ideas.
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