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]
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. [5]
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]