Online trolls are sadists, study shows

KD Suarez

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Online trolling 'correlated positively' with the so-called 'Dark Tetrad' of personality, particularly sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, researchers say

MANILA, Philippines – Science has said what most people have been suspecting all along: online trolls are, in real life, sadistic, psychopathic, and deceitful.

Online trolling “correlated positively” with the so-called “Dark Tetrad” of personality, researchers said in a paper made available online Feb 8, 2014.

“Overall, strong positive associations emerged among online commenting frequency, trolling enjoyment, and troll identity, pointing to a common construct underlying the measures,” according to a paper aptly titled, “Trolls just want to have fun.”

In the two online studies, the researchers asked respondents to answer questionnaires designed to assess their personalities and Internet use & behavior – including trolling.

Some questions the respondents were asked to answer were:

  • Hurting people is exciting
  • In video games, I like the realistic blood spurts
  • I have sent people to shock website 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

The researchers, led by Erin E Buckels of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, then analyzed the responses for correlations between online behavior, particularly trolling, and the respondents’ tendencies to exhibit the so-called “Dark Tetrad” personality variables: narcissism, Machiavellianism (being deceitful and cunning), psychopathy, and sadism.

They found out that “sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism scores were positively correlated with self-reported enjoyment of trolling.” But among these traits, it was sadism that had the “most robust associations with trolling” than the other personality measures.

The correlation between sadism and trolling, they said, was “so strong that it might be said that online trolls are prototypical everyday sadists.”

Sadists, the researchers also said, tend to troll because they “enjoy it.” 

The researchers wrote: “Both trolls and sadists feel sadistic glee at the distress of others. Sadists just want to have fun… and the Internet is their playground!”

In contrast, narcissism was correlated with “enjoying debating issues important” to the respondents, and was “negatively related” to trolling enjoyment.

Don’t fret, however: online trolls make up only a small percentage of the entire online community. In fact, a huge chunk of Internet users do not engage online, those so-called “non-commenters.”

This study, the researchers added, also adds to scientific literature that points to the possible link between antisocial behavior and excessive use of technology – but cautioned the direct link is “still unclear.”

The paper was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences. – Rappler.com

Buckels, E. E., et al. Trolls just want to have fun. Personality and Individual Differences (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.016

(“Evil smile” image courtesy Shutterstock)

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