This is my anecdotal impression as a long-time Wikipedia editor (I started contributing in 2003). I can’t offer concrete evidence other than my testimony, because this impression was formed in the course of observing subtle instances of bias on countless occasions, rather than encountering any one egregious incident. (Though on reflection I can cite two not-so-subtle examples illustrative of the phenomenon I have in mind: first, the labelling of cryonics as “quackery”; and secondly, the blacklisting of Econlib.)
The biases I noticed are in the left-wing and “skeptical” directions (meaning by the latter something like what Eliezer calls “traditional rationality”, as opposed to the “Bayesian rationality” folks in the rationalist and EA communities generally endorse). Think of it as Wikipedia moving slightly in the direction of RationalWiki.
Another example I just discovered: Wikipedia classifies Quillette as an unreliable source; by contrast, Vox, The Nation, Mother Jones are all considered reliable sources. I don’t often read Quillette, but my sense is that a criterion that generates this classification can’t be defended as unbiased.
Whether a source is classified as reliable or unreliable can shape the content of Wikipedia articles in major ways, because only statements backed up by sources deemed reliable are admissible. If the list of reliable sources is skewed in a particular direction, so will be the articles.
This is my anecdotal impression as a long-time Wikipedia editor (I started contributing in 2003). I can’t offer concrete evidence other than my testimony, because this impression was formed in the course of observing subtle instances of bias on countless occasions, rather than encountering any one egregious incident. (Though on reflection I can cite two not-so-subtle examples illustrative of the phenomenon I have in mind: first, the labelling of cryonics as “quackery”; and secondly, the blacklisting of Econlib.)
The biases I noticed are in the left-wing and “skeptical” directions (meaning by the latter something like what Eliezer calls “traditional rationality”, as opposed to the “Bayesian rationality” folks in the rationalist and EA communities generally endorse). Think of it as Wikipedia moving slightly in the direction of RationalWiki.
Another example I just discovered: Wikipedia classifies Quillette as an unreliable source; by contrast, Vox, The Nation, Mother Jones are all considered reliable sources. I don’t often read Quillette, but my sense is that a criterion that generates this classification can’t be defended as unbiased.
Whether a source is classified as reliable or unreliable can shape the content of Wikipedia articles in major ways, because only statements backed up by sources deemed reliable are admissible. If the list of reliable sources is skewed in a particular direction, so will be the articles.
See also this comment by Gwern.