Wikipedia philosophy phenomenon

The Wikipedia philosophy phenomenon is the tendency that English Wikipedia articles' first hyperlink, when clicked in a chain, will end in a loop at the article for philosophy.^[1] The concept was discovered by Wikipedian Mark J.^[2]

2013 crawl on Wikipedia, from a random article to "Philosophy"

The phenomenon first received widespread attention from a "fun fact" in the xkcd webcomic on 25 May 2011, which led to University of Vermont researchers Mark Ibrahim, Christopher Danforth, and Peter Sheridan Dodds publishing a paper on the matter.^[1] The research found that the first link generalises the topic and eventually leads to "Philosophy":

So while a great many [First Link Network] paths flow to "Philosophy" [...], the accumulation is not the result of many articles directly referencing "Philosophy." Instead, first links flow towards "Philosophy" as the ultimate anchor, by generalizing from specific to broad.^[3]

In 2011, more than 93% of English Wikipedia articles led to "Philosophy".^[4] In 2016, this was true for 97% of articles.

Other languages

Some other language Wikipedias, like the German, French and Russian editions, also led to "Philosophy" like the English Wikipedia. Others, like the Dutch and Japanese editions, did not.^[5] The concepts with highest centrality to first link networks in European language Wikipedias are sciences, such as "Psychology" for Italian Wikipedia,^[5] while East Asian languages are connected by concepts such as humans or Earth.^[6]

See also

• Wiki rabbit hole
• Six degrees of separation
• Small world network