Internet Trolls Are Narcissists, Psychopaths, and Sadists

[massadvj]

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-online-secrets/201409/internet-trolls-are-narcissists-psychopaths-and-sadists

Internet Trolls Are Narcissists, Psychopaths, and Sadists

A new study shows that internet trolls really are just terrible human beings.
Published on September 18, 2014 by Jennifer Golbeck, Ph.D. in Your Online Secrets

In this month's issue of Personality and Individual Differences, a study was published that confirms what we all suspected: internet trolls are horrible people.
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.

What kind of person would do this?

Canadian researchers decided to find out. 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. They were looking for evidence that linked trolling with the Dark Tetrad of personality: narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadistic personality.

[Edit to add: these are technical terms with formalized surveys to measure them. You can find lots more information about their formal definitions online]

They found that Dark Tetrad scores were highest among people who said trolling was their favorite internet activity. To get an idea of how much more prevalent these traits were among internet trolls, check out this figure from the paper:




 
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]

Trolls truly enjoy making you feel bad. To quote the authors once more (because this is a truly quotable article):

"Both trolls and sadists feel sadistic glee at the distress of others. Sadists just want to have fun ... and the Internet is their playground!"

So next time you encounter a troll online, remember a few things. (1) These trolls are some truly messed up people and (2) it is your suffering that brings them pleasure, so the best thing you can do is ignore them.

References

Buckels, Erin E., Paul D. Trapnell, and Delroy L. Paulhus. "Trolls just want to have fun." Personality and Individual Differences67 (2014): 97-102.

[Free Vulcan]

And some of us get our kicks off troll hunting. There are few greater pleasures in life than stomping some smarmy liberal troll back to the stone age on some forum.

[Dexter]

Anonymity has a way of bringing out the worst in people.

[massadvj]

Anonymity has a way of bringing out the worst in people.

Indeed it does.  That's one reason I use my real last name and initials as my handle, and have since I first started posting in Listserve discussions back in the late 1980's. 

[Lando Lincoln]

Indeed it does.  That's one reason I use my real last name and initials as my handle, and have since I first started posting in Listserve discussions back in the late 1980's.

I always wondered why my mother named me Lando.

[massadvj]

I always wondered why my mother named me Lando.

and you were born wearing sunglasses, I presume?

[Lando Lincoln]

and you were born wearing sunglasses, I presume?

Absent the beard.

[Dexter]

I wonder whether or not people who say that internet trolling is their favorite activity would accurately complete personality tests.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"One man's ceiling is another man's floor." - Paul Simon

"One man's troll is another man's freedom fighter." - Luis (my real name) Gonzalez

[Luis Gonzalez]

Indeed it does.  That's one reason I use my real last name and initials as my handle, and have since I first started posting in Listserve discussions back in the late 1980's.

And here I've always thought you were an advertising video jockey specialist from Boston

[massadvj]

And here I've always thought you were an advertising video jockey specialist from Boston

Way back in my Free Republic days if someone asked the meaning of my handle, and I wasn't sure about that person, I'd say it was short for "mass advertising jeenyus."  I haven't been asked what my handle means in ages.  Nowadays people often refer to me by my first name when they reply to my posts, so I doubt there are too many people who don't know.

I just googled "massadvj" and got 10, 001 results.  Looking through them, they all appear to be me.  I use the handle as my user name just about everywhere on the internet from gmail to you tube to pandora.  There were Free Republic posts going back to the late 1990's.  If I ever ran for office, someone would have a treasure trove of material.

I did worry when I came up for tenure a few years back that this digital trail might come back to haunt me.  But it didn't.  Two of the seven university tenure committee members voted against me for no good reason, and I have always suspected my politics might have had something to do with it.  That, and the fact that I have steadfastly refused to join the professors' union.