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Network trolling, contrary to what its fans think about themselves, is not fine art, but ordinary sadism.
The more social networks and Internet communication enter our lives, the more the idea of who trolls are is blurred. In the strict sense of the word, an Internet troll is a user who enters into discussions in order to provoke a scandal, anger and insult opponents, manipulate them into wasting time and nerves on themselves. Obviously, any discussion can accidentally lead to such a result, but the troll achieves this effect purposefully and consciously, the spoiled mood of other users is his emotional “food”.
Nowadays, trolls are often – and erroneously – called any rude and passionate debaters on the Web. In fact, a true troll is a dangerous creature: Canadian psychologists have found that sadistic traits are pronounced in the personality structure of trolls.
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The name of the work, carried out by specialists from the Department of Psychology at the University of Manitoba* (the study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences), is tautological. Since net trolling is by definition a sadistic practice, it is not surprising that people who are prone to sadism prefer to “have fun” with net trolling. Nevertheless, once again calling a cat a cat (and a troll a sadist, which he is) does not hurt.
Erin E. Buckels and colleagues conducted an online survey of a total of 1215 people. Some of the questions were aimed at assessing the extent to which the respondents are prone to sadism (for example, “To what extent do you agree with the statement “I like to cause suffering”?”, “To what extent do you agree with the statement “I like the realistic image of blood fountains in computer games” ?”). In addition, the questionnaires revealed the severity of the features of the so-called “dark triad” (narcissism, psychopathy and “Machiavellianism”, that is, malicious manipulativeness). Other questions related to online activity, style and manner of participating in online discussions – in particular, people were asked how much time they spend on social networks and what exactly they do there (chat with friends, participate in meaningful discussions, troll). Well, then it remains to compare one with the other and identify correlations.
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Indeed, trolling enthusiasts showed a pronounced tendency to sadism, which was not found in those who prefer to spend time on the Web in a more peaceful way. Among other personality pathologies, a connection, although weaker, was found between trolling and psychopathy and Machiavellianism, but not with narcissism.
Backels said the result, unexpected for her, was a clear correlation between the tendency to trolling and the time people spend commenting on publications on the Internet. Apparently, this explains the “hell in the comments” phenomenon, which can spoil the mood even for those who have the courage not to feed the trolls and not get involved in disputes with them.
* E. Buckelsa, P. Trapnellb, D. Paulhusc «Trolls just want to have fun», Personality and Individual Differences, September 2014.