Instructional texts for specific target groups should ideally take into account the prior knowledge and needs of the readers in order to guide them efficiently to their desired goals. However, targeting specific groups also carries the risk of reflecting disparate social norms and subtle stereotypes. In this paper, we investigate the extent to which how-to guides from one particular platform, wikiHow, differ in practice depending on the intended audience. We conduct two case studies in which we examine qualitative features of texts written for specific audiences. In a generalization study, we investigate which differences can also be systematically demonstrated using computational methods. The results of our studies show that guides from wikiHow, like other text genres, are subject to subtle biases. We aim to raise awareness of these inequalities as a first step to addressing them in future work.

翻译：针对特定目标群体的指导性文本应理想地考虑读者的先验知识和需求，以高效引导其达成预期目标。然而，针对特定群体也可能存在反映不同社会规范和微妙刻板印象的风险。本文探究来自特定平台wikiHow的操作指南如何根据预期受众在实际中产生差异。我们开展两项案例研究，分析针对特定受众撰写的文本的定性特征。在一项泛化研究中，我们探究哪些差异可通过计算方法进行系统性验证。研究结果表明，wikiHow上的操作指南与其他文本类型一样，存在微妙偏见。我们旨在提高对这些不平等现象的认识，作为未来研究中应对这些问题的第一步。