Survey about Wikipedia

This page contains data collected from a January 22, 2010 survey designed and implemented by Gregory Kohs (using Amazon's Mechanical Turk population), answering questions about Wikipedia. Respondents resided primarily in India and the United States, and they were paid 8 cents each for their time (about equivalent to $4.80 in hourly compensation, as the exercise took the respondents an average of 59.58 seconds to complete).

Admittedly, n=100 is a small data set, but if preliminary results are intriguing enough, additional respondent data could be gathered in a follow-up wave and appended to this data set. Or, an entirely new survey could be designed.

Possible correlations
It is interesting to determine a coefficient of correlation (R-squared) for various pairings of data. Here, we will rather arbitrarily format the correlations with color coding:


 * stronger positive correlations (0.2+) in bold green
 * mild positive correlations (0.1 up to 0.2) in green
 * insignificant correlations (between -0.1 and 0.1) in normal black
 * mild negative correlations (-0.1 down to -0.2) in red
 * stronger negative correlations (-0.2 and lower) in bold red

Gender
If we consider male respondents to represent the "positive" direction, is there a correlation between gender and...
 * time to complete the survey?
 * age of the respondent?
 * Correlation coefficient: -0.041229657


 * country of the respondent?
 * education level of the respondent?
 * Correlation coefficient: 0.040967982


 * frequency of accessing Wikipedia?
 * Correlation coefficient: 0.114762602
 * 1-week average number of times accessed by males: 3.543
 * 1-week average number of times accessed by females: 2.309


 * frequency of editing Wikipedia?
 * Correlation coefficient: 0.145207003
 * 12-month average number of edits by males: 8.241
 * 12-month average number of edits by females: 1.976


 * opinion of accuracy of Wikipedia?
 * Correlation coefficient: 0.092126566


 * opinion of reputation of the Wikimedia Foundation?
 * Correlation coefficient: 0.047348845

Age
The average age of respondents was 30.0 years.

Is there a correlation between age of the respondent and...
 * time to complete the survey?
 * Correlation coefficient: 0.037026501


 * country of the respondent?
 * education level of the respondent?
 * frequency of accessing Wikipedia?
 * frequency of editing Wikipedia?
 * opinion of accuracy of Wikipedia?
 * opinion of reputation of the Wikimedia Foundation?

Country
Is there a correlation between country of residence and...
 * time to complete the survey?
 * education level of the respondent?
 * frequency of accessing Wikipedia?
 * frequency of editing Wikipedia?
 * opinion of accuracy of Wikipedia?
 * opinion of reputation of the Wikimedia Foundation?

Education
The average attainment of education was 15.52 years in school. (Where "some high school" = 10 years; "high school graduate" = 12 years; "some college, no degree" = 13 years; etc.) Is there a correlation between education level and...
 * time to complete the survey?
 * frequency of accessing Wikipedia?
 * frequency of editing Wikipedia?
 * Correlation coefficient: -0.024859808


 * opinion of accuracy of Wikipedia?
 * Correlation coefficient: 0.068177301


 * opinion of reputation of the Wikimedia Foundation?
 * Correlation coefficient: 0.299400451

Frequency of accessing Wikipedia
The average number of times accessing Wikipedia per week was 3.025.

Is there a correlation between frequency of accessing Wikipedia and...
 * time to complete the survey?
 * frequency of editing Wikipedia?
 * opinion of accuracy of Wikipedia?
 * opinion of reputation of the Wikimedia Foundation?

Frequency of editing Wikipedia
The average times editing Wikipedia per year was 5.61.

Is there a correlation between frequency of editing Wikipedia and...
 * time to complete the survey?
 * opinion of accuracy of Wikipedia?
 * Correlation coefficient: -0.000506988


 * opinion of reputation of the Wikimedia Foundation?

Opinion of accuracy of Wikipedia
The accuracy of Wikipedia was given a score of 77.8, on average. (Where "extremely reliable" = 100; "mostly reliable" = 80; "only somewhat reliable" = 50; and "quite unreliable" = 20.)

Is there a correlation between opinion of accuracy of Wikipedia and...
 * time to complete the survey?
 * opinion of reputation of the Wikimedia Foundation?

Opinion of reputation of the Wikimedia Foundation
The reputation of the Wikimedia Foundation averaged 3.15. (Where "I know it is honest and reputable" = 6; "I think it may be honest and reputable" = 3; "I don't know or have an opinion" = 0; "I think it may be dishonest and unreputable" = -3; and "I know it is dishonest and unreputable" = -6.)