Studies

A 2007 study by researchers from Dartmouth College found that "anonymous and infrequent

contributors to Wikipedia ... are as reliable a source of knowledge as those contributors who register
with the site".[128] Jimmy Wales stated in 2009 that "[I]t turns out over 50% of all the edits are done by
just .7% of the users ... 524 people ... And in fact, the most active 2%, which is 1400 people, have
done 73.4% of all the edits."[123] However, Business Insider editor and journalist Henry
Blodget showed in 2009 that in a random sample of articles, most Wikipedia content (measured by
the amount of contributed text that survives to the latest sampled edit) is created by "outsiders",
while most editing and formatting is done by "insiders". [123]
A 2008 study found that Wikipedians were less agreeable, open, and conscientious than others, [129]
[130]
 although a later commentary pointed out serious flaws, including that the data showed higher
openness and that the differences with the control group and the samples were small. [131] According
to a 2009 study, there is "evidence of growing resistance from the Wikipedia community to new
content".[132]

Diversity
Several studies have shown that most Wikipedia contributors are male. Notably, the results of a
Wikimedia Foundation survey in 2008 showed that only 13 percent of Wikipedia editors were female.
[133]
 Because of this, universities throughout the United States tried to encourage women to become
Wikipedia contributors. Similarly, many of these universities, including Yale and Brown, gave college
credit to students who create or edit an article relating to women in science or technology. [134] Andrew
Lih, a professor and scientist, wrote in The New York Times that the reason he thought the number
of male contributors outnumbered the number of females so greatly was because identifying as a
woman may expose oneself to "ugly, intimidating behavior". [135] Data has shown that Africans are
underrepresented among Wikipedia editors.[136]