
Internet troll study: Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, sadism - zvanness
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/climate_desk/2014/02/internet_troll_personality_study_machiavellianism_narcissism_psychopathy.html
======
Tycho
This is not how I use the word troll or trolling. What this article describes
I would simply call 'bullying' or anonymous bullying or in extreme cases
harassment.

True trolling is about, among other things, plausible deniability. The troll
identifies a pressure point in the collective unconscious of an online
community, and then subtly attacks it. Depending on how skilled the troll is,
what follows is a lot of attention and a large degree of over-reaction. The
troll can then take the moral highground and pretend to be perplexed at these
harsh responses, which of courses only provokes even more enraged responses.
The cycle can be quite amusing. It can also generate/provoke lots of debate
that a community would otherwise not be inclined to start.

It's not about personal attacks.

~~~
chadillac
"trolling is a art"

Always summed it up perfectly for me when trying to describe it simply. It's a
subtle sentence, it begs to be corrected, and it's sure to incite replies...
once someone "takes the bait" it's just a matter of working whatever their
weakest point is to incite maximum rage. It's basically a form of social
engineering when you boil it down to the basics.

"trolling is AN art"

"yeah, that's what I just said stupid..."

"well I'm not the idiot making simple grammatical erors."

"erors... you sure about that? Listen I went to Harvard for English studies...
I think I know when to use A vs AN, it's not like I don't have an degree or
something..."

... and the cycle continues ...

p.s. I might enjoy trolling more than the average bear.

~~~
pcrh
I bet you also like geraffes.

~~~
sb057
It's "juraffes", idiot.

~~~
hexasquid
as in gif.

------
gaius
These days "troll" just means "someone on the Internet who disagrees with me
and says so". The term has been so overused as to become meaningless.

~~~
eplanit
Exactly, as is "racist".

~~~
girvo
Solid troll.

------
domdip
It's not easy for me to put myself in the mind of an Internet troll, but I
have to imagine I'd also be the kind of person who would enjoy trolling
researchers by filling out their personality tests in the most shocking way
possible. No idea if the study accounts for this possibility.

~~~
joveian
It is notable how little about the actual study this article actually reveals
(the study itself is behind a paywall). I'd say the author of the article is
just trolling...

~~~
grkvlt
> paywall

Google search for the title along with with 'filetype:pdf' is what is needed
here...

[http://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/02/trol...](http://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/02/trolls-just-want-to-have-fun.pdf)

Enjoy!

------
sliverstorm
_it also found a relationship between all Dark Tetrad traits (except for
narcissism) and the overall time that an individual spent, per day, commenting
on the Internet._

Well. That's not good news for ol' sliverstorm.

~~~
trhway
correlation doesn't mean causation. May be Dark Tetrad traits develop as
result of the trolling. May be you still have time to stop and save your soul
:)

~~~
klipt
Pretty sure online interaction is not a good substitute for real-world
interaction, and the latter is necessary for developing social skills and a
balanced viewpoint of human relationships.

Chatting to people online is like having all your conversations through a
crack in the wall. Except that even the tone of voice is filtered out.

------
badman_ting
This is what people always say. And not to deny it completely, it's just that
it's obviously kind of self-serving. If something pisses you off you can just
write it off as trolling from a person who is messed-up in all the ways listed
in the article. But moreover, any time spent thinking about the narcissism of
others is time not spent thinking about one's own.

------
ecdavis
Can self-confessed trolls really be trusted to give honest answers on
personality surveys?

~~~
balls187
Survey science involves setting up controls to suss out people filing falsely.

~~~
malandrew
Yeah, but how many people conducting surveys are actually practicing this
level of scientific rigor? Unless a study specifically points out what they
did to ensure the validity of their results, I assumed none of these
additional checks were performed.

------
PhasmaFelis
"Dark Tetrad", really? Are they _trying_ to glamorize "being an asshole"?

~~~
ACow_Adonis
Ah, but did they test positive for the sordid quintuple of the major douchebag
arcana?

------
vezzy-fnord
The study itself is paywalled.

Slate's summary is woefully unconvincing, however.

In fact, some of the described methods they used to identify trolls seemed
very inadequate. Something a jolly prankster would latch onto for the sake of
humor.

~~~
gwern
Google Scholar to the rescue: [http://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/02/trol...](http://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/02/trolls-just-want-to-have-fun.pdf)

------
VeejayRampay
Internet trolls and trolls in general are absolutely not horrible people.
They're in fact miserable individuals who choose to be reviled by everyone
else in the world, cause at least it means being acknowledged (if negatively)
rather than being ignored. Nothing but a coping mechanism.

~~~
Einstalbert
My boyfriend is actually someone I met 10+ years ago online through a video
game. At the time, I did not like him as he was considered a pretty nasty
troll. Now that I know him intimately, I am not entirely convinced the
teasing/bullying aspect of his personality isn't entirely just his own choice.
He doesn't seem very miserable (go me!) but I can't help but think his
behavior extends well past him trying to make up for something.

~~~
Estragon
If it's not too personal, I'm curious to know what you get out of the
relationship.

~~~
Einstalbert
Well we share a ton of interests, have an extremely long common history, his
humor isn't too terribly far from my own (I laugh more than he does, but then
he'll surprise me and enjoy some extremely low-brow stuff), and most of all we
put up with each other's quirks/bullshit without too much hassle.

------
TrainedMonkey
So article basically claims that trolling is modern sadism. We knew that
already, in every large enough society there will be people who enjoy
discomfort of others.

Real question is: does trolling on the internet help mitigate real life
tendencies?

~~~
eurleif
>Real question is: does trolling on the internet help mitigate real life
tendencies?

Are the effects of Internet trolling better than the effects of real life
behavior?

------
julie1
trolling can describe also people like zedshaw or theo de raat even linus
torvalds. People that have strong opinions often a tinge of humour, and
sometimes are right against everybody. I think being confident in your claim
even if it goes against the majority can be called narcisism I guess making a
point without using the manipulation of feelings based on logic can be called
psychopathy (vs empathy/fallacies) I guess also that they speak because they
care when they feel a wrong idea is spreading ... I guess we can hardly make a
distinction between a troll and someone that is disruptive (innovative)

We should tolerate trolls and love them because in the minority of this
population maybe master troll bringing up new ideas.

The fact I am a troll does not mean I am a genius, nor that I have any
interest lobbying for the usefullness of trolls :) But I think the non troll
way of discussing is creating trolls: using fallacies, not accepting strong
logical criticizes that can enforce an idea, the ad hominem based on authority
rather than the construction of arguments, the lack of passion and sometimes
humor that comes with.

So my point is trolling is beneficial to every communities, and it should stay
fun.

------
ChristianMarks
Since it hasn't been mentioned, here is Torkel Franzen's Internet Trolling
Guide (I prefer to call it this; the actual title is _How to make a nuisance
of yourself in news_ ):

[http://web.archive.org/web/20070609085706/http://www.sm.luth...](http://web.archive.org/web/20070609085706/http://www.sm.luth.se/~torkel/eget/net.html)

------
wcummings
Only Christ can judge us

~~~
patcheudor
The ultimate example of trolling. Well played! Well played!

------
jon_black
I wonder if these people are indeed being themselves or playing the role of a
troll. Or to put it another way, would they behave the same way "in the real
world"?

------
volune
The new four horseman.

------
fideloper
Everyday trolling comes in the format of intelligent people using said
intelligence to justify their positions, even if their position is weak or
wrong.

It's the result of being too mentally lazy to take the time to see another
sides point of view but smart enough to justify their point in a way that's
hard to argue against.

It's a very republican mindset.

------
michaelochurch
Trolling, like hacking, has hat colors.

I started out as a gray hat troll and became more white-hat over time. We have
nothing in common with the black hat trolls and the bullies. Online bullies
are (like all bullies) horrible people, but trolling is a different thing
entirely. It can be done in a way that doesn't hurt people. The first rule of
a decent troll: don't fuck with peoples' IRL.

~~~
herokusaki
Can you define what you mean by a "white-", "gray-" and "black-hat" troll?

The obvious parallel with security hacking doesn't seem to quite work for me
if I think of "white-hat trolling" as a kind of human pentesting because
humans who know they are being trolled are unlikely to get trolled by
definition.

~~~
gbog
White hat trolling has positive outcome, it helps people to consolidate their
ethical immune system, like a vaccine.

~~~
growupkids
Is this like a muffler return spring?

------
stefantalpalaru
That's like doing psychological profiles on actors based on the roles they
play.

~~~
spoiler
I disagree. Actors openly (it's their calling or career, after all) play a
role. It's also set in a controlled environment, and everyone knows that.

"Trolls" (I use troll as a synonym for bully) are different in that aspect.
They employ anonymity to attack someone. They chose their role as someone's
tormentor, which is very real as opposed to two actors on set, who each know
what their roles are.

Actors play roles in (fictional and/or other) universes; trolls play roles in
ours, which renders all their actions real, and they are aware of it.

P.S: not sure if you were being funny by posting a controversial comment :P

~~~
stefantalpalaru
>I use troll as a synonym for bully

You shouldn't.

"In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord
on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting
inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such
as a forum, chat room, or blog), either accidentally or with the deliberate
intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise
disrupting normal on-topic discussion." \-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29)

"Bullying is the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or
aggressively impose domination over others. The behavior is often repeated and
habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception, by the bully or by
others, of an imbalance of social or physical power." \-
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying)

------
fuckpig
Seems to be standard for the majority of the internet population, not just
trolls.

Further, as Tycho points out:

> What this article describes I would simply call 'bullying' or anonymous
> bullying or in extreme cases harassment.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7242130](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7242130)

Trolling is about provoking your enemy into revealing himself. It's not just
walking up to someone and saying something rude or stupid. But that's about
the most the majority of people can handle.

------
cwaniak
I always knew that only psychopaths aren't Marxists.

