What's hot and what's not in lay psychology: Wikipedia's most-viewed articles

Abstract

We studied views of articles about psychology on 10 language editions of Wikipedia from July 1, 2015, to January 6, 2021. We were most interested in what psychology topics Wikipedia users wanted to read, and how the frequency of views changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. Our results show that the topics of interest to people seeking psychological knowledge changed during the pandemic. In addition, the interests differ noticeably among the languages. We made two important observations. The first was that during the pandemic, people in most countries looked for new ways to manage their stress without resorting to external help. This is understandable, given the increased stress of lockdown and the limited amount of professional help available. We also found that academic topics, typically covered in university classes, experienced a substantial drop in traffic, which could be indicative of issues with remote teaching.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03826-0.

Keywords: Cross-cultural online behavior; Lay psychology; Wikipedia.

Fig. 1

2016–2020 Standardized Monthly Sums of Views of “Social distance” Article in Seven Wikipedias

Fig. 2

2016–2020 Standardized Monthly Sums of Views of “Psychological pain” article in two Wikipedias

Fig. 3

Standardized Annual Sums of Views of “Defence Mechanism” Article on Nine Wikipedias

Fig. 4

Standardized Annual Sums of Views of “Substance intoxication” Article in five Wikipedias

Fig. 5

2016–2021 Standardized Monthly Sums of Views of “Symbolic Violence” Article in two Wikipedias

Fig. 6

2016–2021 Weekly Views of “Reactance (psychology)” Article in English Wikipedia

Fig. 7

2016–2021 Weekly Views of “Sensation (psychology)” Article in English Wikipedia

Fig. 8

Standardized Annual Sums of Views of “Claustrophobia” Article in 10 Wikipedias

Fig. 9

2016–2021 Standardized Monthly Sums of Views of “Relationship counseling” Article in four Wikipedias

Fig. 10

Standardized Annual Sums of Views of “Stress (medicine)” Article in Nine Wikipedias

Fig. 11

Standardized Annual Sums of Views of “Burnout (psychology)” Article in 10 Wikipedias