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Reliability of Wikipedia’s Stereotype Threats By Clara Munkarah

The general academic population highly discourages using Wikipedia as a source for research because of the misconceptions that Wikipedia is always wrong and unreliable due to the ability for anyone to edit its pages. Contrarily, Wikipedia has guidelines and strives to remain a useful online encyclopedia that contains reliable, neutral information. In fact, citations within its pages are strongly encouraged, and each page allows space for discussions among editors about the validity and controversy of the content written. However, the truth about the dependability of a typical Wikipedia page lies within the middle of these two extreme perceptions. Wikipedia’s “Stereotype Threats” page is a decent example of this. While the “Stereotype Threat” page provides ample correct information in great detail about the topic, there are a few generalizations and lack of citations that contribute to its untrustworthiness. The reliability of the “Stereotype Threat” page is reflected through the resourceful citations and the use of the article’s “Talk” page. Many of the main concepts have a footnote citation with a link to the source, which is useful for the reader to fact-check. Moreover, nearly all of the sources in the article’s list of references are research studies and papers published in prominent journals. The “Talk” page also contributes to the legitimacy of the article as the editors are able to discuss any issues they find within the article, ensuring the relevance and neutrality of the information. On the “Stereotype Threat” Talk Page, editors confer why a certain graph was removed and another one was put in its place. Simple discussions as these ensure that the information in the “Stereotype Threat” Page is clear and useful for the general audience. Wikipedia’s “Stereotype Threat” article can be seen as somewhat unreliable due to the lack of citations in some circumstances and some generalized statements. For instance, in the “Mitigation” section of the article, a research experiment is introduced, cited, and then a follow-up statement concludes, “allowing participants to think about a positive value or attribute about themselves prior to completing the task seemed to make them less susceptible to stereotype threat.” As this remark is uncited, it leaves uncertainty as to whether this is a conclusion from the research study itself or the author of this section. Furthermore, without any citation, the claim seems much less valid through the uncertainty and ambiguity of “the task seem[ing] to make them less susceptible” rather than affirmatively making the participants less susceptible. The study previously cited indicated that Cohen et al.’s research reveals that self-affirmative intervention made participants less inclined to be influenced by stereotypes. Russell McClain’s published article, which explains much of Cohen’s research, also states the effective use of self-affirmation in stereotype threat situations. So, by leaving an uncited, ambiguous statement as a conclusion to a section, the author brings a sense of uncertainty and unreliability into the article. The “Stereotype Threat” article has plenty of accurate information on a social science phenomenon; however, the few uncited, ambiguous statements make it a somewhat unreliable source. While Wikipedia’s page is useful in providing knowledge to the general public, those that are researching stereotype threats should not look to this page as a source of valid research. Instead, they should use the reliable sources from which Wikipedia second-handedly relays information.

Works Cited

McClain, Russell. "Helping Our Students Reach Their Full Potential: The Insidious Consequences of Ignoring Stereotype Threat." Rutgers Race & the Law Review, 2016. Accessed October 19, 2016. http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/.

Woolf K, McManus IC, Gill D, Dace J. "The effect of a brief social intervention on the 	examination results of UK medical students: a cluster randomised controlled trial.” BMC Medical Education, June 2009. 9: 35. http://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6920-9-35.

"Stereotype Threat." Wikipedia. Accessed October 19, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_threat.

"Talk: Stereotype Threat." Wikipedia. Accessed October 19, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Stereotype_threat.