Ah internet trolls - whether it’s on twitter, a forum, or even these very YouTube comments...ehem...we
can’t seem to escape them. But who are these people - and what do they look like when we
evaluate them scientifically?
While many people do enjoy chatting and debating issues online, approximately 5.6% of individuals
self identify as trolls, or say they enjoy trolling online. So, scientists studied a
group of 1200 internet users to understand these trolls in particular and found a myriad
of something called ‘dark traits’. Specifically, online trolls were found to display high levels
of psychopathy, narcissism and most specifically sadism; that is, people who enjoy the pain
of others.
Now, most people tend to avoid inflicting pain on others, and if we do, we experience
guilt or remorse. But for sadists, cruelty can be exciting and pleasurable. These people
aren’t necessarily serial killers or bad people, but they get an emotional reward when
causing or observing the suffering of others. In fact, there’s even a category called
‘everyday sadism’ that highlights how sadistic traits are present in many people
- not just sexual deviants and criminals. For example, many of us enjoy a good fight
during a sports game or the thrill of a violent movie, right?
If you were given the choice of the following 4 jobs, which would you choose? a) Killing
bugs b) helping an experimenter kill bugs c) cleaning dirty toilets or d) enduring pain
from ice water? Studies show that those who choose to kill bugs have higher scores on
a scale measuring sadistic impulses.
But internet trolls show very high levels as sadism and have fun distressing others
by being argumentative and disruptive. Studies have also documented a link between these
individuals and anti-social behaviour. So are these individuals different in real life?
Not likely - the studies suggest that these traits carry over into their regular day-to-day
and reflect one’s actual personality. But since the internet offers anonymity, antisocial
individuals can connect with similar others while distancing themselves from their acts
in terms of personal responsibility.
The unfortunate part is that trolls not only comment more but receive more replies than
the average user, suggesting they are quite successful at luring others in. On top of
this, negative feedback only stimulates a harsher response from trolls, and their behaviour
becomes worse over time with more feedback.
So, the next time you’re being trolled, just remember, they WANT to disrupt you - and
they feed off of your unhappiness. Ignore them, and you’re likely to diminish their
effort.
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