Wikipedia:National bias

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This is an essay; it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. It is not a policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it.
This page in a nutshell: National bias produces two separate difficulties, articles that are ethnocentric, and protracted editing disputes.

National bias is the practice of viewing the world through a filter of experiences and views of a country or people. This sometimes involves a belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of a nation's culture.

Many, perhaps even most, editors have some form of national bias, which results in articles being written from an ethnocentric viewpoint. Due to Wikipedia's demographic, the most significant ethnocentric bias is American, followed by British. This can be seen by reviewing the articles in Category:Articles with limited geographic scope:[1]

National biases frequently result in edit wars, which the arbitration committee described as a "pervasive problem of intractable disputes centered around national, ethnic, and cultural areas of conflict."[2] These disputes arise due to an existing real world conflict, and involve editors from the respective groups. The entrenched opinions often result in tendentious editing, which includes a general unwillingness to compromise.

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[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Figures obtained May 2008.
  2. ^ Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Palestine-Israel articles#Working group