Shown here: English Wikipedia hyperlink network. Only 0.1% of articles (nodes) and their connections (edges) are visualized. Seven different reader journeys through this network are highlighted in different colors. Networks are organized by topic and displayed using a layout that groups related articles. Credit: Dale Zhou
At some point, you go online in search of specific information and discover a whole new and ever more fascinating set of related topics (some trivial, some pertinent). You may have found yourself “falling down the Wiki rabbit hole.” Having hit rock bottom so much, it can be difficult to piece together what got you there in the first place.
According to Dani Bassett of the University of Pennsylvania, who recently collaborated with a research team to study the browsing habits of 482,760 Wikipedia readers in 50 countries, found that this style of information acquisition is known as the “busy body.” It is said that This is a person who moves from one idea or information to another, and the two ideas or information may not be very related to each other.
“Busy people love novelty of all kinds, happily jumping from here to there, seemingly without rhyme or reason, in contrast to the more goal-oriented, focused It’s “Hunter”. We try to solve problems, find missing elements, and complete models of the world,” Bassett says.
In the study, published in the journal Science Advances, Bassett and colleagues found clear differences in browsing habits between countries that are well-educated and gender-equal compared to countries that are not. This raises important questions about its effects on the mind and learning.
“People in countries with high levels of inequality in terms of gender and access to education browse more intentionally for closely related information, whereas people in more equal countries browse more broadly. “We observed a high degree of diversity in information. Topics—jumping from topic to topic, collecting loosely connected information,” says Bassett. “We don’t know exactly why, but we have a hunch. We believe these findings will help scientists in this field better understand the nature of curiosity.”
Geography and summary statistics of laboratory and naturalistic data. Credit: Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn3268
The study builds on previous research led by David Lydon Staley, assistant professor at the Annenberg School for Communication. David Lydon Staley was a postdoctoral fellow in Bassett’s Complex Systems Laboratory at the time.
In their paper, the team had 149 participants in Philadelphia browse Wikipedia for 15 minutes a day for 21 days. In the course of their research, they identified two styles of curiosity. These were predicted by one of the new paper’s co-authors, Perry Zahn, a professor of philosophy at American University and now a visiting professor at Cornell University. Over the past 2000 years of literature has come home in these curious styles.
“By starting with a small sample, we were able to develop the methods necessary to capture the complex information seeking that occurs with curiosity,” says Lydon-Staley. “By considering these methods, we were able to consider whether we could scale up and see if the styles we observed were present beyond the sample of Philadelphians.”
By collaborating with Martin Gerlach of the Wikimedia Foundation, who had data on over 2 million human browsers, they were able to “apply existing techniques and develop new ones to analyze Wikipedia’s 14 different languages and 50 “We were able to capture styles of curiosity that emerge across different countries, or territories,” says Lydon-Staley.
three premonitions
The researchers cite three main hypotheses that drive the association between information-seeking approaches and equality.
“One is that countries with higher levels of inequality may have more patriarchal structures of oppression, constraining their approach to knowledge production to be more hunter-like.” says Bassett. “In contrast, countries that are more egalitarian are more accepting of diverse ideas and therefore more diverse in how they interact with the world. -Like a person with a heart.
A second possibility outlined by the researchers is that browsers access Wikipedia for different purposes in different countries, with someone from a more egalitarian country accessing the site for entertainment or leisure rather than work. It lists things that can be done.
And a third potential explanation is that people from different countries who access Wikipedia may have different ages, genders, socio-economic statuses, and educational backgrounds, and differences in the users who access Wikipedia may actually influence their browsing patterns. That may explain the difference.
make connections
One of the most interesting findings of this study was the confirmation of a third style of curiosity, the “dancer”, which had previously only been hypothesized based on the study of historical documents from Zurn.
“Dancers are people who move with the flow of information, but unlike busy people, they jump between ideas in a creative and choreographed way,” says Zurun. “Rather than randomly jumping around, connect different domains to create something new.”
This inquisitive style exhibits a degree of creativity and interdisciplinary thinking, offering new perspectives on how people interact with information. “It’s less about randomness and more about finding connections that other people don’t notice,” Bassett says.
“What this tells us is that people, and perhaps children, have different curiosity styles that can influence how they approach learning,” Bassett says. “Children with hunter-like curiosity may struggle if they are evaluated in a way that favors a nosy style, and vice versa. Understanding these styles can help you tailor your educational experience. to better support individual learning paths.”
Where will my curiosity take me next?
Looking ahead, the team is looking to investigate the factors that influence these styles of curiosity.
“One of the questions I’m particularly interested in is whether people browse differently at different times of the day. Maybe they’re more hunters in the morning and nosy at night.” Bassett says.
“This opens up new avenues of research, including the role of biological processes in shaping how we seek information,” said the paper’s other author, a doctoral student at Pennsylvania College of Engineering. says Shubhankar Patankar. He is also passionate about understanding the implications of AI efforts. “Injecting the concept of curiosity into AI systems that learn from interactions is an increasingly important area of research,” says Patankar.
The research team investigated the motivations behind Wikipedia browsing, determining whether users are driven by extrinsic factors, such as work, or by intrinsic curiosity, such as personal interests. The purpose is to investigate. Additionally, we are considering expanding our analysis to include other digital platforms where learning and exploration naturally occur.
“Wikipedia is a very special place on the Internet,” Lydon Staley said. “This site features only free content and no commercial advertising. Much of the rest of the modern digital environment is designed to stimulate individual buying impulses and customize our media content. This raises the question of how far we are in charge of our curiosity.”It takes us into an online context beyond Wikipedia. ”
More information: Dale Zhou et al., Curiosity architectural style in the global Wikipedia mobile app readership, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn3268
Provided by University of Pennsylvania
Quote: Researchers identify ‘dancer’ as new curiosity style in Wikipedia browsing (October 26, 2024). Retrieved October 26, 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2024-10-dancer-curiosity-style-wikipedia-browsing. html
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