Cross-cultural currents: Studying Wikipedia browsing habits shows people learn
By Dr. Tim Sandle
August 17, 2025
DIGITAL JOURNAL
Wikipedia has inked a partnership with Google - Copyright Sputnik/AFP Alexei Druzhinin
Wikipedia maintains a very special place on the Internet. The site features exclusively free content and no commercial advertisements. This raises the question of how much we are in charge of where our curiosity takes us in online contexts beyond Wikipedia.
Researchers have examined how nearly half a million people around the world use Wikipedia’s knowledge networks. This reveals clear differences in browsing habits between countries offering insights into cultural differences and potential drivers of curiosity and learning.
The researchers examined the habits of 482,760 Wikipedia readers from 50 different countries, using a form of information acquisition is called the “busybody.” This is a term reserved for someone who goes from one idea or piece of information to another, and the two pieces may not relate to each other much. In simpler terms, going down digital rabbit holes.
According to lead researcher, University of Pennsylvania’s Dani Bassett: “The busybody loves any and all kinds of newness, they’re happy to jump from here to there, with seemingly no rhyme or reason, and this is contrasted by the ‘hunter,’ which is a more goal-oriented, focused person who seeks to solve a problem, find a missing factor, or fill out a model of the world.”
Through this, the researchers established stark differences in browsing habits between countries with more education and gender equality versus less equality, raising key questions about the impact of culture on curiosity and learning.
Bassett recollects:
“We observed that countries that had greater inequality, in terms of gender and access to education, had people who were browsing with more intent — seeking closely related information, whereas the people in countries that had more equality were browsing expansively, with more diversity in topics — jumping from topic to topic and collecting loosely connected information.”
Adding: While we don’t know exactly why this is, we have our hunches, and we believe these findings will prove useful in helping scientists in our field better understand the nature of curiosity.”
The researchers cite three main hypotheses driving the associations between information-seeking approaches and equality.
Hypothesis one: It is possible that countries that have more inequality also have more patriarchal structures of oppression that are constraining the knowledge production approaches to be more Hunter-like. Countries that have greater equality, in contrast, are open to a diversity of ideas, and therefore a diversity of ways that we’re engaging in the world. This is more like the busybody — the one that’s moving between ideas in a very open-minded way.
Hypothesis two: A second possibility is that browsers go to Wikipedia for different purposes in different countries, citing how someone in a country with higher equality may be going to the site for entertainment or leisure rather than for work.
Hypothesis three: The third scenario contends that people in different countries who come to Wikipedia may have different ages, genders, socioeconomic status, or educational attainment, and that those differences in who’s actually coming to Wikipedia may explain the differences in the browsing patterns.
The dancer?.
One of possible finding from the study is the emergence of a third curiosity style — the “dancer,” which had previously only been hypothesized. The dancer is someone who moves along a track of information but, unlike the busybody, they make leaps between ideas in a creative, choreographed way.
Bassett says: “It’s less about randomness and more about seeing connections where others might not.”
The research features in the journal Science Advances titled “Architectural styles of curiosity in global Wikipedia mobile app readership.”
Wikipedia has inked a partnership with Google - Copyright Sputnik/AFP Alexei Druzhinin
Wikipedia maintains a very special place on the Internet. The site features exclusively free content and no commercial advertisements. This raises the question of how much we are in charge of where our curiosity takes us in online contexts beyond Wikipedia.
Researchers have examined how nearly half a million people around the world use Wikipedia’s knowledge networks. This reveals clear differences in browsing habits between countries offering insights into cultural differences and potential drivers of curiosity and learning.
The researchers examined the habits of 482,760 Wikipedia readers from 50 different countries, using a form of information acquisition is called the “busybody.” This is a term reserved for someone who goes from one idea or piece of information to another, and the two pieces may not relate to each other much. In simpler terms, going down digital rabbit holes.
According to lead researcher, University of Pennsylvania’s Dani Bassett: “The busybody loves any and all kinds of newness, they’re happy to jump from here to there, with seemingly no rhyme or reason, and this is contrasted by the ‘hunter,’ which is a more goal-oriented, focused person who seeks to solve a problem, find a missing factor, or fill out a model of the world.”
Through this, the researchers established stark differences in browsing habits between countries with more education and gender equality versus less equality, raising key questions about the impact of culture on curiosity and learning.
Bassett recollects:
“We observed that countries that had greater inequality, in terms of gender and access to education, had people who were browsing with more intent — seeking closely related information, whereas the people in countries that had more equality were browsing expansively, with more diversity in topics — jumping from topic to topic and collecting loosely connected information.”
Adding: While we don’t know exactly why this is, we have our hunches, and we believe these findings will prove useful in helping scientists in our field better understand the nature of curiosity.”
The researchers cite three main hypotheses driving the associations between information-seeking approaches and equality.
Hypothesis one: It is possible that countries that have more inequality also have more patriarchal structures of oppression that are constraining the knowledge production approaches to be more Hunter-like. Countries that have greater equality, in contrast, are open to a diversity of ideas, and therefore a diversity of ways that we’re engaging in the world. This is more like the busybody — the one that’s moving between ideas in a very open-minded way.
Hypothesis two: A second possibility is that browsers go to Wikipedia for different purposes in different countries, citing how someone in a country with higher equality may be going to the site for entertainment or leisure rather than for work.
Hypothesis three: The third scenario contends that people in different countries who come to Wikipedia may have different ages, genders, socioeconomic status, or educational attainment, and that those differences in who’s actually coming to Wikipedia may explain the differences in the browsing patterns.
The dancer?.
One of possible finding from the study is the emergence of a third curiosity style — the “dancer,” which had previously only been hypothesized. The dancer is someone who moves along a track of information but, unlike the busybody, they make leaps between ideas in a creative, choreographed way.
Bassett says: “It’s less about randomness and more about seeing connections where others might not.”
The research features in the journal Science Advances titled “Architectural styles of curiosity in global Wikipedia mobile app readership.”
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