Trolls just want to have fun

[á´…eparted]

That's the title of the journal article anyway (which seriously made me crack up). Published recently in the journal of Personality and Individual Differences, a study confirms what many have long suspected: That internet trolls are generally just shitty people.

Psychology today posted a news story highlighting this. The actual publication is behind a pay wall, but I have access to it through my university. If you would like a copy of it feel free to send me a PM and I'd be happy to. Here are a few excerpts from the news article:

Let's start by getting our definitions straight. An internet troll is someone who comes into a discussion and posts comments designed to upset or disrupt the conversation. Often, it seems like there is no real purpose behind their comments except to upset everyone else involved. Trolls will lie, exaggerate, and offend to get a response.
...
They conducted two internet studies with over 1,200 people. They gave personality tests to each subject along with a survey about their internet commenting behavior.
...

Look at how low the scores are for everyone except the internet trolls! Their scores for all four terrible personality traits soar on the chart. The relationship between this Dark Tetrad and trolling is so significant, that the authors write the following in their paper:
"... the associations between sadism and GAIT (Global Assessment of Internet Trolling) scores were so strong that it might be said that online trolls are prototypical everyday sadists." [emphasis added]

Some additionally noteworthy conclusions were drawn in the publication itself:

Note that the Dark Tetrad associations were specific to trolling. Enjoyment of other online activities, such as chatting and debating, was unrelated to sadism.
...
Study 2 also found strong positive relations among online commenting frequency, trolling enjoyment, and trolling behavior and identity, pointing to high levels of consistency among the measures. Our findings add to accumulating evidence linking excessive technology use to antisociality.
...
Our research suggests that, for those with sadistic personalities, that ideal self may be a villain of chaos and mayhem – the online Trickster we fear, envy, and love to hate: the cybertroll.

As many of you read this I suspect there will be a lot of nodding heads and "yep already knew this" sort of thoughts. Nevertheless, there is a lot of good in seeing this in data form. Additionally, seeing how strongly these correlations between dark personality traits and trolling are. I take quite a lot of personal interest in this due to my burning hatred of internet (and irl) trolls and desire to purge the world of them. In my experience I have actually found explicit trolls, the ones that were studied in that they troll with intent, aren't as destructive (usually) as the ones who actually believe in what they're saying and doing that causes inflamation in others.

So there you have it, the majority of trolls are shitty people. On a personal level, now I feel much more justified when I think or say that a troll is a horrible person.

Thoughts? Discuss!

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I have found that if someone is truly being obnoxious to you repeatedly, the best thing to do is to just exercise some self-control and ignore them. They want the attention.

 

[á´…eparted]

I have found that if someone is truly being obnoxious to you repeatedly, the best thing to do is to just exercise some self-control and ignore them. They want the attention.

Generally speaking this works, and wonk them on the head with a report/ban in places where that works. The problem comes in when everyone else around you gives them attention, thus fueling them and making them a persistent presence. The later case is the effective ones.

 

[eudaimonia]

Trolls and nontrolls alike are shitty people.

Not that I go trolling but I think my superpower is instantly killing a thread.

 

[Raffaella]

I have no issue with trolls, I either ignore or engage them (knowing very well that's their intention). I find it hard to believe that they're sadists; I think they're just unimaginative, desire attention and there's a platform, so why not take it? I doubt they have an audience that listens to their obnoxiousness in real life.

 

[Magic Poriferan]

Considering that this is based on self-evaluation, it's not very surprising, because what kind of person consciously identifies as someone who does trolling behavior and admits to it? What this test may not show us, is the personality of people who do pretty much all the things that seem like trolling but never imagine they might be trolling.

Also, I never heard of the dark tetrad before, just the triad. Were it not for that added part that makes it the tetrad, sadism would have nothing to do with it. I wonder when that dimension was added.

 

[á´…eparted]

Considering that this is based on self-evaluation, it's not very surprising, because what kind of person consciously identifies as someone who does trolling behavior and admits to it? What this test may not show us, is the personality of people who do pretty much all the things that seem like trolling but never imagine they might be trolling.

Also, I never heard of the dark tetrad before, just the triad. Were it not for that added part that makes it the tetrad, sadism would have nothing to do with it. I wonder when that dimension was added.

They explicitly defined trolling as someone who does the action(s) with the intent and full knowledge of what they're doing. IMO a troll is what a troll does. I do however agree it would be much more interesting for them to study individuals who troll but don't know they're doing it (and as I said previously, these individuals often cause far more damage). As far as the dark "triad", they used the term triad and tetrad at several points. Sadism is simply added in as an additional metric, and they regarded it as being dark as well.

 

[Mole]

a troll is a horrible person. Thoughts? Discuss!

Most of us attracted to mbti are authoritarian personalities, or controlling personalities, who naturally see the personality as fixed rather than dynamic or growing.

So most of us attracted to mbti see the personality as thing rather than a growing person.

Most of us attracted to mbti reify the living person into a thing.

This is evidenced by the fact that most of us disparage Sigmund Freud, who analysed persons; and we follow Carl Jung, who reified us into personality types quite like somatic types.

And as most of us find it hard to harm a living person, it is necessary to reify the person, turn them into a thing, before we harm them.

Reification of living persons has a well documented history. And this same history shows reification is necessary before most of us can harm another.

 

[Nicodemus]

Trolling is a tool. It can be used for many different reasons to many different ends. Yes, Machiavellianism.

 

[five sounds]

 

[Jaguar]

I take quite a lot of personal interest in this due to my burning hatred of internet (and irl) trolls and desire to purge the world of them.

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”


― Friedrich Nietzsche

 

[Mal12345]

I have no issue with trolls, I either ignore or engage them (knowing very well that's their intention). I find it hard to believe that they're sadists; I think they're just unimaginative, desire attention and there's a platform, so why not take it? I doubt they have an audience that listens to their obnoxiousness in real life.

The defense mechanism known as Displacement plays into trolling too. The rule is, "If there is nobody lower than you irl to kick around, then go trolling for a victim on the internet."

 

[Mole]

The defense mechanism known as Displacement plays into trolling too. The rule is, "If there is nobody lower than you irl to kick around, then go trolling for a victim on the internet."

Yes, I never thought I would agree with Mal, but it turns out that most trolls come from relatively powerless groups in society: the young and the old.

You would think the young would be sweet and innocent, and that the old would know better, but apparently not.

 

[Magic Poriferan]

Trolling is a tool. It can be used for many different reasons to many different ends. Yes, Machiavellianism.

True. But the same can be said of violence. We still can find a tendency toward some sort of psychological profile in those who have a preference for utilizing the tool of violence.

 

[Swivelinglight]

Based on what you quoted in the topic post, it seems that the study has a narrow definition of troll, in comparison to the broad, cultural definition that is attached to the word. In their usage of the word, I don't find their conclusions surprising. However, I think many would consider many forms of 'trolling' to not be sadistic.

 

[Rasofy]

We can't have a good story without villains.

 

[1487610420]

We can't have a good story without villains.

 

[Raffaella]

The defense mechanism known as Displacement plays into trolling too. The rule is, "If there is nobody lower than you irl to kick around, then go trolling for a victim on the internet."

I wouldn't call that trolling but if we're going by the article's definition then I agree.

I cringe at articles that discuss the psychology of trolls because it's obvious they don't frequent message boards therefore it's always blown out of proportion. There are many reasons to troll and different types of trolls. It's akin to understanding the class clown or the smartass, they just want to provoke, labelling them as sadists is a joke.

 

[Bilateral Entry]

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”


― Friedrich Nietzsche

i feel this.

 

[Bilateral Entry]

I wouldn't call that trolling but if we're going by the article's definition then I agree.

I cringe at articles that discuss the psychology of trolls because it's obvious they don't frequent message boards therefore it's always blown out of proportion. There are many reasons to troll and different types of trolls. It's akin to understanding the class clown or the smartass, they just want to provoke, labelling them as sadists is a joke.

You never seen MEAAAAN motherfuckers who are just mean as fuck, angry, bitter?