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The Most Controversial Article In All Of English Wikipedia Is George W. Bush's

The Most Controversial Person On Wikipedia
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By 

Deputy Managing Editor Of Impact & Innovation, The Huffington Post

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Brewing beneath the surface of every popular Wikipedia page is a minor war. Wikipedians bicker with each other in hidden "Talk" pages about word choice and bias and, if a debate gets particularly contentious, one editor may edit over another editor's work.

That, say the authors of a new study on Internet's most popular encyclopedia, is the best proxy for how controversial an article is. A group of researchers from Hungary, the UK and the U.S. determined the "controversiality" of a Wikipedia page "by focusing on 'reverts', i.e. when an editor undoes another editor’s edit completely and brings it to the version exactly the same as the version before the last version." Wikipedia's most controversial articles cover most of the subjects that engender controversy at the dinner table: religion, philosophy and politics.

The results are pretty fascinating. Americans are stuck in the past: the most controversial U.S. Wikipedia article is on George W. Bush. Czech Wikipedians are really interested in homosexuality; 3 of the top 10 most controversial articles deal with homosexuality. Unsurprisingly, Jesus causes controversy in most languages.

The study includes some incredible graphics, a few of which are displayed below:

A word cloud of the titles of the 1000 of the most controversial articles.

The most controversial articles in English, German, French, Spanish, and Czech.

The study also features this beautiful interactive infographic, which lets you see which general topics are most controversial in different languages:

Read the entire study here.

In a blog post Monday, one of the study's authors, Taha Yasseri, wrote that "these results could help Wikipedia and similar projects (which are already many, and growing) to be better designed." Yasseri and his partners also hope that this case study will help other social scientists to "understand more about human societies."

[h/t Wired]

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Before You Go

Wikipedia Wormholes You Should Avoid
1. New Jersey Devil(01 of15)
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Sports management majors interested in New Jersey's National Hockey League team may be interested to know the inspiration for the team's name. Careful. A U.S. Navy hero, Commodore Stephen Decatur, was totally freaked out after reportedly seeing the two-legged, hoofed creature flapping its wings over him. He was likely glad to never see the thing again, since he fired a cannonball at it, TO NO EFFECT. Legends related to the Garden State's biggest boogeyman date to Native American folklore. Even Mulder and Scully had a hard time with the creature in an early episode of "The X-Files." MORE. (credit:WikiMedia:)
2. Ed Gein(02 of15)
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Criminal justice majors have a lot to think about when reading the history of Ed Gein. He was one sick puppy who inspired some of our most terrifying characters. What do you get when you mix Norman Bates from "Psycho," Leatherface from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," Jame Gumb of "The Silence of the Lambs," and Bloody Face from "American Horror Story: Asylum?" Ed Gein. Read more. (credit:Getty Images)
3. The Cure For Insomnia(03 of15)
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It's not really a cure per se. It's a movie, so film studies folk would be interested to know that this film has no plot. Instead, it's L.D. Groban reading a poem so long that it resulted in the longest movie of all time. It premiered at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, but who would stay for the whole thing? It played continuously from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3, 1987. MORE! (credit:Alamy)
4. Amelia Earhart(04 of15)
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Women's Studies majors have a hero in Amelia Earhart, but her story has a bizarre ending and a fascinating Wikipedia page. She was the first female pilot to fly solo over the Atlantic Ocean and formed the Ninety-Nines, a major organization for female pilots. Then she disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Read theories of how that happened. (credit:WikiMedia:)
5. Gray Goo(05 of15)
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The alternative spelling of this end of the world theory is "grey goo," but that hardly matters. Imagine robots programmed to self-replicate. They continuously reproduce until they consume all matter on earth. Nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler pioneered the term based on mathematician John von Neumann's theories. But in 2004, Drexler said he wished he never did. Read more. (credit:Shutterstock)
6. Pope Lick Monster(06 of15)
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Anyone interested in papal history should avoid searching "pope" in Wikipedia. The page "Pope Lick Monster" may appear. This part-man, part-goat, part-sheep native of Kentucky has vexed people for ages. The legend goes that it lures passersby onto the Pope Lick Trestle to their certain deaths via oncoming train. Is it a mistreated circus freak who's vowed revenge? You may not care to find out. Perhaps you wish to know more. (credit:Getty Images)
7. Shell Shock(07 of15)
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Shell shock was to World War I soldiers what brain injuries related to improvised explosive devices are to those who fought the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Simply put, the intensity of battle and the psychological toll of repeated shellings broke some WWI soldiers' will to live. Many officials during the early debate insisted that battlefield trauma did not entitle soldiers to quit fighting, unlike wounds to the body. Read more about the origin of the term and its later effects on literature, film and the broader culture of an entire generation. (credit:WikiMedia:)
8. Guided Rats(08 of15)
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You might be shocked to learn that implanted electrodes can produce "guided rats" or remote controlled rats. They were "developed" in 2002 at the State University of New York's Downstate Medical Center. Wild, right? Read more. (credit:Shutterstock)
9. Exploding Head Syndrome(09 of15)
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If you've ever had a serious headache, like a mind-numbing experience of searing pain, you may not want to read further.Some folks experience screams, gunshots, explosions or buzzing in their heads that are so extreme they think their heads are about to explode. Read more if you're interested in abnormal psych or bizarre medical conditions. (credit:Alamy)
10. UVB-76(10 of15)
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While on the topic of loud, incredibly annoying buzzing, a radio frequency known now as UVB-76 has vexed shortwave radio enthusiasts since the early 1970s. It broadcasts about 25 bizarre tones per minute, 24/7. Every now and then, a man speaks in Russian. Why? Who knows? Media students should read more and hear the noise for themselves. (credit:Alamy)
11.Lost Dutchman's Mine(11 of15)
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The Gold Rush wasn't all cheap whiskey and sifting through rivers until that giant golden nugget turned up. Miners and others who hoped to profit from the mysterious Lost Dutchman's Mine know this all too well -- if they're still alive (spoiler: they aren't!). The legend says that somewhere, perhaps in the Superstition Mountains, Jacob Waltz's gold-rich mine is waiting to make someone super-rich. But no one since Waltz has been able to locate it, and many have died in the search. Read more. (credit:WikiMedia:)
12. Koro (Or 'Penis Panic')(12 of15)
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Any student insecure with the equipment between his legs should rest assured after reading about this concerning condition. Men who who suffer from koro, or "penis panic," are convinced that their genitals are shrinking and will disappear into the body. Women also can have the condition, focused on their nipples. It's a real thing described in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders." Read more. (credit:Shutterstock)
13. Shadow People(13 of15)
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Have you ever seen a shadow in the corner of your eye that disappears once you turn your head toward it? If you're inclined to believe in the supernatural, it was a shadow person. Researchers have attributed the hallucinations commonly associated with shadow people to sleep deprivation or a medication side effect. But what do they know? Jump down this Wikipedia wormhole, and decide for yourself. (Disclaimer: the condition has nothing to do with the country of Germany, symbolically represented in this stock photo of a person's shadow.) (credit:Alamy)
14. Carl Tanzler(14 of15)
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Do you wish to be a famous radiologist? Then be very specific when you ask your genie friend to make it happen. Carl Tanzler was a German-born radiologist at the U.S. Marine Hospital in Key West, Fla., before he became infatuated with Elena Milagro, a young tuberculosis patient. Two years after she died, he dug up the corpse and lived with it for seven years, sparking rumors of a "romantic" relationship. Don't believe it? Well, read for yourself: (credit:Shutterstock)
15. Humans(15 of15)
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Any student who's been studying for far too long develops a keen interest in the meta aspects of his or her surroundings. Is this a scientific fact? Unlikely. But see how far you read into this fascinating Wikipedia page about you. Yes, you! (credit:Shutterstock)
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