Hello I m Darren Magee and todays topic is following on from the previous topic
following many questions I ve had around cyber bullying and Internet rolling. In the previous
video, I looked at the different kinds of troll and looked at some of their motivations that
might explain their behaviour. In this video I'm going to look at the personality type. I'm also
going to look at different areas of research and then maybe bring them together to see how they
fit. Just to remind you, this video is for information purposes only.
I would like to say as well, before we go any further, not everybody who posts
something controversial online or maybe has a disagreement with someone is an Internet
troll. Many people disagree. Many people debate and they can generally respect each other, and
even if they don't come to a consensus still treat each other with civility. Sometimes there can even
be a miscommunication which can lead to some kind of contention, that still not the same as Internet
trolling. When you think of the term troll, remember this comes from a mythical creature who s
generally quite horrible. They re very quarrelsome and disagreeable and not very friendly at all.
What we see with Internet trolls is someone who is deliberately trying to evoke some
kind of emotional reaction at the expense of others. Now this could be fear, humiliation,
frustration. It could be anger even. And there can be different reasons for this. It can be
just to cause contention and mayhem. It could be to spread misinformation, to intimidate, to
antagonise. Sometimes they just want to shut something or someone down, something they
don't agree with. And do you know what? Some just engage in some kind of a pointless game
for their own entertainment. But what kind of a person engages in Internet trolling ? Well
research from Brigham Young University has found that many people with dark personality traits,
and schadenfreude are more likely to demonstrate trolling behaviours. Now the Dark Triad
is a combination of psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism. Schadenfreude is a German word
and that means someone who derives pleasure from other people's misfortune and discomfort. In
other words, sadism. Now other areas of research have shown that whenever those four elements, the
psychopathy, the narcissism, the Machiavellianism and the sadism, when they come together, you have
what's known as the Dark Tertrad. These would be what's known as sub clinical. In other words,
there may be very strong traits in one or more of the areas, maybe less others. Strong traits maybe,
but not enough for a clinical diagnosis for a personality disorder. So let's look at the
different elements of the Dark Tetrad to see if they fit the character of the online troll. Also,
I'm also going to look at the different areas of research afterwards to see how they come together.
So first of all, there is psychopathy. Now this could be characterised by being callous and having
a lack of remorse for harming others. Psychopathy comes under the umbrella term of anti social
personality which is often characterised by hostility and aggression, sometimes unnecessary
risk taking and having no regard for the well being or for the safety of others. So what might
that look like in trolling? Well, you might have someone who's claiming to be very virtuous or as
part of some kind of righteous movement, but their behaviour is really just self-serving.
Any gratification they get is gained through socially negative attitudes and behaviours.
I think the psychopathy would explain some of the more extreme types where see threats of violence
and sexual violence, and even encouraging others to engage in that level of hatred.
I think it's also present in those who we see spreading hate speech or
trying to shout something down that they claim is hate speech. Now the sadistic elements at
play there, such as the threats, the capitalising on other people's fears and pain and misfortune,
I would suggest that's not so much pleasure, although yes they may well be getting pleasure
from it, but it's more as a means to an end. They terrorise, threaten in order to dominate, to
control and to force others to comply. The second component would be narcissism. Narcissism is
primarily ego driven and is often characterised by a sense of entitlement. There's haughty behaviour,
there's being highly disagreeable and either highly resistant or highly sensitive to criticism,
there is also a lack of empathy. Now it's a lack of empathy, not no empathy. There is what s known
as a cognitive empathy. This is sometimes known as a dark empathy. Now in other words, they know
what they're doing. They knew what buttons to push. They know what reaction that they want,
and they know pretty much how to go about getting that reaction. They enjoy those reactions,
they re feeding off it. Now are different kinds of narcissism. I think with the grandiose narcissism
we see the troll who can get very angry. Now they re are often an expert on topics and subjects
that they know nothing about. They can be very quick to trying to discredit the other person's
credentials, and if they can't do that they pretty much try to discredit the person themselves.
Putting things out there on the Internet in order to maybe draw in some sympathy, support
and attention from others. Regardless of the presentation, remember the constant narcissism,
again, primarily eagle driven, so everything is about them. They maybe see something online that
challenges them or challenges their worldview somehow. And they may react as if it's about
them personally. Sometimes that can bring up what's often known as narcissistic rage.
Another common characteristic of narcissism is envy. They believe people should be envious of
them and they are generally very envious of other people. They don't like to see others happy,
successful, even just being popular. And they tend to try to ruin it, somehow. They often
engage in conversations online and frustrate the Hell out of the people hurt rolling as
their arguments are nonsensical circular reasoning and often personalised against the other person.
Thirdly, there is sadism. This is often characterised by receiving gratification
from the pain, humiliation in the misery of others, using cruelty for their own pleasure,
their own entertainment or to control and to dominate. There are different kinds of sadism.
There s what s known as Explosive Sadism, which is often the unrestrained anger and vitriol. Now
these trolls are scathing merciless. They relish menacing and dehumanising others.
There is Tyrannical Sadism which is controlling others throughout bursts of fury, humiliation
and fearsome attacks. Then there's enforcing sadism. They threaten, humiliate, destroy others
in the name of the greater good. They believe themselves to be on their right side. It's it
is their role in life to seek out the less virtuous the less moral until punish them.
And then there s Spineless Sadism. Now these would be more cowardly, but can be
every bit as venomous as the others might, just in different ways. For example, they can feel safe to
harass and bully through just being anonymous, or perhaps being part of a larger group or of
larger movement. They might not necessarily be the first to insult someone or to threaten someone,
but they are very quick to take part in pile-ons and to try to keep it going. They can also switch
sides very quickly whenever it suits them. I think with Spineless Sadism as well what we often see is
the more passive aggressive type of troll. For example, the jokes with jags, the pretending
to just be a playful scamp, or highlighting errors or fault just for the sake of a debate.
But they're really quite bogus and insecure, and any targets they pick on themselves, they
tend to be quite isolated or vulnerable somehow. Lastly, there's Machiavellianism. Now this is
the very manipulative element of the Dark Tetrad. They might be spreading or withholding information
in order to manipulate others, manipulate the population, the news, elections even.
They may be commenting and posting things to elicit a specific reaction through always kind
of scheming, plotting, looking for something just to exploit in order to further their own agenda.
This type that would just put something out there just to see if anybody bites if anybody reacts. It
comes to the manipulation side of things remember the Internet has been around for a while now,
and many trolls have had a long time to finely tune their skills through find outing. Which forum
is it reasonable to do this and is it best to do that when, even with different kinds of people
to know what works and what doesn't. For example, the very aggressive, vitriolic kind of troll, they
generally don't bother to go on the forums where there is civil discussion and the discussions
are well moderated and people are generally pleasant and friendly. If you remember earlier
on I mentioned a cognitive empathy. That kind of empathy can be quite analytical, so some can adapt
how do they go about their trolling, learning what buttons to push, what kind of language to use.
At this point I would like to add that other research I looked at from the Otemon Gakuin
University in Japan suggested that there is a link, when it comes to trolling anyway, there is a
link between loneliness and aggression. Loneliness can represent the state of chronic frustration.
There's maybe unmet needs and a lack of connection with others. So if you think about that
loneliness, that inner turmoil, tha bitterness, the envying, the resentment, you imagine that
co-occuring with Dark Personality traits, that's often quite a destructive combination. With
loneliness bad attention still brings an emotional reward. It is better than no attention at all.
That emotional reward can become quite addictive the more they inflict misery on others, the more
they do, and the more they do, the better they feel, so the more they inflict misery on others.
Which does sound quite maladaptive, because if someone is lonely, if they want some kind of
connection antagonising others is probably not the best way to go about it. But then,
as Milton once wrote, to some people, maybe, It's better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.
So that's a brief outline of the personality type of the Internet troll. Now as always there
are things I may have missed, by all means, please feel free to use the comment box below. There are
some interesting conversations start around these videos. But if you find this video interesting
please consider subscribing to my channel and until next time thanks for watching. Here's a guy
here who says he is a troll and how much he enjoys it and all that sort of thing. I'm not gonna read
the whole thing out like, but it's the better the end, he says. I have a whole bit about by people
that were thick, black framed glasses offering advice, but that's for another time.
You cheeky little windup scampster you. This is one of the videos I made on narcissism. The
guy asks. Hey, Darren, is the narcissist in the room? I think he's talking to you, you know.