Internet trolls are also real-life trolls: Why do some people find so much pleasure in harassing others online? A new study attempts to shed light on the behaviour of internet trolls Tuesday 25 February 2014 02.00 EST My brother and I have a childhood history of internet trolling under our belts. Innocent enough, yes – but disruptive nonetheless. From the same room at our parents’ house, we’d play Yahoo! Graffiti (the internet’s version of Pictionary). The word was “dinosaur†and it was his turn to draw. He’d illustrate a beautifully elaborate rainbow. All the while, players would be guessing “rainbow,†“RAINBOW,†“RAINBOW!!!†and wonder why they weren’t scoring points. I’d wait until five seconds were left on the clock and finally, calmly, contribute “dinosaurâ€. We’ve been banned from Yahoo! Gamerooms until 2016. (With any luck, I’ll have my PhD by then and show Yahoo! that I’m a changed woman.)A “trollâ€, in internet slang, is someone who deliberately upsets others by starting arguments or posting unnecessarily inflammatory messages on blogs, chatrooms, or forums. In recent years, it’s gotten so bad that YouTube needed to develop a way for users to moderate their video’s comments section, and Popular Science shut down its comments section entirely. Indeed, for trolls, the anonymity of the internet is the perfect playground.But a new study by Erin Buckels and colleagues at University of Manitoba in Canada wanted to figure out who, exactly, these trolls are. Using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk website, internet users (mostly male, with an average age of 29 years) answered survey questions designed to assess what’s called the “Dark Tetrad of personalityâ€. This tetrad includes narcissism (egocentrism and preoccupation with prestige), Machiavellianism (tendency to deceive and manipulate), psychopathy (lack of empathy and inhibition), and sadism (pleasure of inflicting pain or humiliation on others).Buckels and colleagues asked about the participants’ internet behavior, including how frequently they comment on blogs and forums. They also gauged how the subjects commented, asking whether they preferred debating, chatting, making friends, or trolling. Of the 418 participants, 59% said that they actively comment on websites. Among those, nearly a tenth admitted that their favorite activity was trolling other users.Scores on the Dark Tetrad personality test revealed that trolls are, by far, more likely to have narcissistic, Machiavellian, psychopathic, and sadistic personality traits. Okay, so that’s not so surprising. But Buckels and colleagues wanted to take it a step further: how much enjoyment are these trolls getting from their online shenanigans? The researchers constructed their own Global Assessment of Internet Trolling (GAIT), which asked such questions as “I have sent people to shock websites for the lulz†and “The more beautiful and pure a thing is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt.†(Sadly, some people indeed answered these questions with a “yesâ€).Trolling enjoyment was very strongly associated with a sadistic personality, and was also correlated with Machiavellianism and psychopathy. In fact, further statistical analysis revealed that most of the Dark Tetrad correlations with internet trolling were because of overlap with sadism.So basically, the study shows that people write nasty comments because they enjoy harming others. Big deal, right?Actually, the study may have some interesting implications. Since a sadistic person is characterised by being vicious and degrading toward others (sometimes physically), it’s possible that the internet allows them to redirect their energy. If they’re inflicting harm through anonymous words, perhaps it’s preventing them from doing something much more destructive in person. On the extreme end, and unsurprisingly, sadism is commonly seen in sexual offenders and serial killers.Another finding that was not emphasised strongly in the paper: across all participants, the average amount of time they admitted devoting to commenting was over an hour a day. AN HOUR! Commenting frequency was associated with younger age, being male, and high scores on the authors’ GAIT test. If you have a friend who spends upwards of an hour of their day remarking on friends’ Facebook photos, replying to everyone’s tweets, or making memes for the subreddit Advice Animals – whether pleasantly or savagely – perhaps it’s time to gently prod them in another direction. There goes the XSo the next time you find yourself reeling over a particularly hateful comment on your favorite website, take some comfort in knowing that you’re just another anonymous pawn in the internet troll’s game. They’ve got some serious personal issues going on that they might not even realise.Or it’s just another 12-year-old trying to ruin your Yahoo! Graffiti experience. That’s possible, too.
Keeps me from being a serial killer. I'll buy that for a dollar. Since this is the only place I troll I don't think the study applies.
Most sexual assaults are made by people the victim knows well. The trolling here is pretty brutal. We turned a hetero lawyer into a fake ghey caricature of himself and he accepts his role as bottom bitch openly. This is a cave of trolls. And Kaos is the biggest, nastiest booger eating one of them all. Argue for the sake of it. Find a position and nail your foot to the floor so you couldn't back away, even when your positions is shown to be 100000% wrong on multiple levels. Consistency in the repetitious narrative. But shine the light of day on his diatribes and he goes back to his normal drudgery, where he dares not show his X face to the general public of helpless sheep.
Most sexual assaults are made by people the victim knows well. The trolling here is pretty brutal. We turned a hetero lawyer into a fake ghey caricature of himself and he accepts his role as bottom bitch openly.
Pretty much everyone on here I've met in person is somewhat of a caricature of sorts. And I think a lot of that is in fun. It's fun to actually do it. To have that outlet to let loose and be a wise ass or say what you want with certain narcissistic and sociopathic traits (harmless of course), and witty banter. Sometimes this board is like an episode of Sunny in Philly. Which isn't a bad thing. Aside from a few certain lines that shouldn't be crossed, the only issue I see is when people lose sight of the "it is what it is" aspect and start taking it too seriously. I've even done it myself. That's when it becomes hard to tell the difference in serious opinion and extreme hyperbole (1.00 to King THS).
^^^This. And, I think people tend to fantasize about being someone that they are not because they live a boring and obscure life. Like many on the people here. Generally nice people but lunatics and delusional about themselves and their life.During my time at the agency, while working with the contras to topple the Sandinistas, I had this same conversation with the chair of the House Armed Services Committee. There are a lot of deranged individuals out there and they aren't always easy to spot.
You hang around here long enough, you end up talking to yourself, stumbling around in the dark, drinking from a mason jar. Next thing you know, you're sitting up at night, rubbing yourself in peanut butter listening to Strawberry Alarm Clock.
I've seen a picture of him.
With or without cat make up? Because everyone on here has seen the one with makeup. Hear him roar. Meow.
Someone showed me a picture sitting in a bar in Opelika a few years ago, kind of look liked George from Seinfeld.
I was in the pool. The water was cold. It was shrinkage.
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