Internet Trolls are Psychopaths and Sadists Research Shows
Dear We The People of WaccoBB Land,
Here is a report of an investigation into the psychology of Internet Trolls. We have had Trolls here at WaccoBB, I believe. Others may disagree. Oh, well! I have myself proposed that some Trolls are really computer programs designed by people, programs that post comments designed to create dissension, foment discord, and elicit pain and rage in readers. If there really are Polimalware Programs (that's my neologism for politically motivated malware), then the people who created them are "horrible people." I once posted an article on WaccoBB by a person who was trained as an operative in a trollbooth (ooooh! Another neologism!) run by right-wingers.
Star Man
Internet Trolls Really Are Horrible People
Narcissistic, Machiavellian, psychopathic, and sadistic.
In the past few years, the science of Internet trollology has made some strides. Last year, for instance, we learned that by hurling insults and inciting discord in online comment sections, so-called Internet trolls (who are frequently anonymous) have a polarizing effect on audiences, leading to politicization, rather than deeper understanding of scientific topics.
That’s bad, but it’s nothing compared with what a new psychology paper has to say about the personalities of trolls themselves. The research, conducted by Erin Buckels of the University of Manitoba and two colleagues, sought to directly investigate whether people who engage in trolling are characterized by personality traits that fall in the so-called Dark Tetrad: Machiavellianism (willingness to manipulate and deceive others), narcissism (egotism and self-obsession), psychopathy (the lack of remorse and empathy), and sadism (pleasure in the suffering of others).
It is hard to overplay the results: The study found correlations, sometimes quite significant, between these traits and trolling behavior. What’s more, it also found a relationship between all Dark Tetrad traits (except for narcissism) and the overall time that an individual spent, per day, commenting on the Internet.
In the study, trolls were identified in a variety of ways. One was by simply asking survey participants what they “enjoyed doing most” when on online comment sites, offering five options: “debating issues that are important to you,” “chatting with others,” “making new friends,” “trolling others,” and “other.” Here’s how different responses about these Internet commenting preferences matched up with responses to questions designed to identify Dark Tetrad traits:
To be sure, only 5.6 percent of survey respondents actually specified that they enjoyed “trolling.” By contrast, 41.3 percent of Internet users were “non-commenters,” meaning they didn’t like engaging online at all. So trolls are, as has often been suspected, a minority of online commenters, and an even smaller minority of overall Internet users.
The researchers conducted multiple studies, using samples from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk but also of college students, to try to understand why the act of trolling seems to attract this type of personality. They even constructed their own survey instrument, which they dubbed the Global Assessment of Internet Trolling, or GAIT, containing the following items:
I have sent people to shock websites for the lulz.
I like to troll people in forums or the comments section of websites.
I enjoy griefing other players in multiplayer games.
The more beautiful and pure a thing is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt.
Yes, some people actually say they agree with such statements. And again, doing so was correlated with sadism in its various forms, with psychopathy, and with Machiavellianism. Overall, the authors found that the relationship between sadism and trolling was the strongest, and that indeed, sadists appear to troll because they find it pleasurable. “Both trolls and sadists feel sadistic glee at the distress of others,” they wrote. “Sadists just want to have fun ... and the Internet is their playground!”
The study comes as websites, particularly at major media outlets, are increasingly weighing steps to rein in trollish behavior. Last year Popular Science did away with its comments sections completely, citing research on the deleterious effects of trolling, and YouTube also took measures to rein in trolling.
But study author Buckels actually isn’t sure that fix is a realistic one. “Because the behaviors are intrinsically motivating for sadists, comment moderators will likely have a difficult time curbing trolling with punishments (e.g., banning users),” she said by email. “Ultimately, the allure of trolling may be too strong for sadists, who presumably have limited opportunities to express their sadistic interests in a socially-desirable manner.”
03-16-2014, 02:07 PM
Geoff Johnson
Re: Internet Trolls are Psychopaths and Sadists Research Shows
It doesn't take long to recognize the trolls who post perhaps the majority of comments at the Press Democrat website.
News items about the Lopez killing have drawn hundreds of comments, many (most?) of them ugly; and the trolls stand out from the commenters who are simply racist, pro- or con- Law Enforcement, etc.
A clear sign to me is that a troll wants to pick a fight, and keep it going, regardless of the issue at hand.
03-16-2014, 03:34 PM
Star Man
Re: Internet Trolls are Psychopaths and Sadists Research Shows
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Geoff Johnson:
It doesn't take long to recognize the trolls who post perhaps the majority of comments at the Press Democrat website.
News items about the Lopez killing have drawn hundreds of comments, many (most?) of them ugly; and the trolls stand out from the commenters who are simply racist, pro- or con- Law Enforcement, etc.
A clear sign to me is that a troll wants to pick a fight, and keep it going, regardless of the issue at hand.
Geoff,
Apply the Turing Test. Do you believe you can tell the difference between a human troll and a malware troll? If so, how?
Star Man
03-16-2014, 07:18 PM
Geoff Johnson
Re: Internet Trolls are Psychopaths and Sadists Research Shows
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Star Man:
Geoff,
Apply the Turing Test. Do you believe you can tell the difference between a human troll and a malware troll? If so, how?
Star Man
My experience has been with real, often identifiable people.
I can imagine malware that could pick fights in the same way as human trolls, by simply disagreeing with whatever a previous comment said; dropping in some stock insults, to goad the commenter; and continuing the process until the commenter ends the dialogue.
But real people are trouble enough.
03-16-2014, 10:16 PM
arthunter
Re: Internet Trolls are Psychopaths and Sadists Research Shows
For many, trolling is just a job ... yes, I'm sure that there are those who do these things for all of the reasons mentioned in the article, ... a feeling of power or sadistic enjoyment ... but speaking of trolling in the political arena, I'm also sure that there are those who do it to feed their children, .... or because they're misinformed and have a false sense of patriotic duty ... or as a "stay out of jail" arrangement ...
Re: Internet Trolls are Psychopaths and Sadists Research Shows
I mentioned to someone a few weeks ago that all I knew about the term "troll" was it's reference to bridge dwelling and what I did while fishing on lake Erie. I did feel that the term is rather loosely used and like many multiordinal terms can take on many meanings.
Many of my questions concerning "trolls" and trolling were well addressed in an excellent exposition on the subject in "How Trolls Work" by Jonathan Strickland. If your interested in multiordinal terms and "A Difference That Makes a Difference" check out the Korzybski files:
03-18-2014, 09:39 AM
Geoff Johnson
Re: Internet Trolls are Psychopaths and Sadists Research Shows
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Ronaldo:
I mentioned to someone a few weeks ago that all I knew about the term "troll" was it's reference to bridge dwelling and what I did while fishing on lake Erie. I did feel that the term is rather loosely used and like many multiordinal terms can take on many meanings.
Many of my questions concerning "trolls" and trolling were well addressed in an excellent exposition on the subject in "How Trolls Work" by Jonathan Strickland.
Does the person ask the same questions worded in different ways? Does the person ignore suggestions or responses from other members of the community? If the community has a frequently asked question (FAQ) section, does the person seemingly refuse to read it?
Has the person posted inflammatory remarks that have no real substance to them?
Does he or she make it a habit to post messages that include insults and vulgar language?
Does he or she respond to other members in a purely negative, critical way?
Does the person post messages that are generally off-topic? Does he or she seem to want only attention rather than discuss the topic at hand?
Does the person resurrect old conversations or discussions that were once controversial within the community? Some trolls enjoy bringing back old arguments to encourage dissent within a group.
When confronted with a counter argument, does the person in question change tactics rather than answer the points made by another member? Does the person employ logical fallacies within their posts?
If the answer to these questions is yes, there's a good chance you're dealing with a troll. Whether the member is consciously trying to troll the community or not is another matter. There are times when even respected members of an online community might behave like a troll. But if it's a newhttps://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png member who is very active and displays these qualities, you've probably got a real troll on your hands.
What do you do? If you're simply a member of the community, the besthttps://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png advice is to ignore the troll. The troll's goal is to disrupt the community and rile up its members. By ignoring the troll, you deny him or her a victory. There's a common phrase that dates back to the early days of Usenet: Don't feed the trolls. Trolls love attention -- depriving them of it usually means they'll lose interest and move on to a different community.
03-19-2014, 09:16 AM
podfish
Re: Internet Trolls are Psychopaths and Sadists Research Shows
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Geoff Johnson:
I can imagine malware that could pick fights in the same way as human trolls
to paraphrase the great Mitt Romney on corporations:
malware are people, my friend.
Someone wrote it to do wholesale what they themselves can only do retail. That's the magic of our modern age of computers.
