Cumference
I brought my plunger!
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2014
- Posts
- 2,729
Or maybe rather: Why they do it.
Trolls are apparently not "nice people, who just get nasty on the 'net".
They are nasty here and IRL:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2014/10/06/internet-trolls-really-are-psychos/
Abstract:
I can see the full paper (but I'm at work right now). I do not know if you need a subscription to see it.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886914000324
Trolls are apparently not "nice people, who just get nasty on the 'net".
They are nasty here and IRL:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2014/10/06/internet-trolls-really-are-psychos/
Abstract:
Abstract
In two online studies (total N = 1215), respondents completed personality inventories and a survey of their Internet commenting styles. Overall, strong positive associations emerged among online commenting frequency, trolling enjoyment, and troll identity, pointing to a common construct underlying the measures. Both studies revealed similar patterns of relations between trolling and the Dark Tetrad of personality: trolling correlated positively with sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, using both enjoyment ratings and identity scores. Of all personality measures, sadism showed the most robust associations with trolling and, importantly, the relationship was specific to trolling behavior. Enjoyment of other online activities, such as chatting and debating, was unrelated to sadism. Thus cyber-trolling appears to be an Internet manifestation of everyday sadism.
Keywords
Sadism;
Dark Tetrad;
Dark Triad;
Trolling;
Cyber-trolls;
Antisocial Internet behavior;
Personality
I can see the full paper (but I'm at work right now). I do not know if you need a subscription to see it.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886914000324