Narcissistic, Machiavellian, psychopathic, and sadistic.
By Chris Mooney
In the past few years, the science of Internet trollology has made some strides. Last year, for instance, we learned that by hurling insults and inciting discord in online comment sections, so-called Internet trolls (who are frequently anonymous) have a polarizing effect on audiences, leading to politicization, rather than deeper understanding of scientific topics.
That’s bad, but it’s nothing compared with what a new psychology paper has to say about the personalities of trolls themselves. The research, conducted by Erin Buckels of the University of Manitoba and two colleagues, sought to directly investigate whether people who engage in trolling are characterized by personality traits that fall in the so-called Dark Tetrad: Machiavellianism (willingness to manipulate and deceive others), narcissism (egotism and self-obsession), psychopathy (the lack of remorse and empathy), and sadism (pleasure in the suffering of others).
It is hard to underplay the results: The study found correlations, sometimes quite significant, between these traits and trolling behavior. What’s more, 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.
In the study, trolls were identified in a variety of ways. One was by simply asking survey participants what they “enjoyed doing most” when on online comment sites, offering five options: “debating issues that are important to you,” “chatting with others,” “making new friends,” “trolling others,” and “other.” Here’s how different responses about these Internet commenting preferences matched up with responses to questions designed to identify Dark Tetrad traits:
This is really a funny article to me--Mooney is basically analyzing the Liberal Rag and its readers at Slate--Their have been other studies done too about how miserable the Liberals tend to be--just look how they gang-up on places like twitter to attack with the most vile comments about someone that does not agree with them
ZitatThat’s bad, but it’s nothing compared with what a new psychology paper has to say about the personalities of trolls themselves. The research, conducted by Erin Buckels of the University of Manitoba and two colleagues, sought to directly investigate whether people who engage in trolling are characterized by personality traits that fall in the so-called Dark Tetrad: Machiavellianism (willingness to manipulate and deceive others), narcissism (egotism and self-obsession), psychopathy (the lack of remorse and empathy), and sadism (pleasure in the suffering of others).
With that quote Mooney just described Liberals to a tee
Eventually all trolls end up talking to only themselves in a hollowed out wasteland. Posting comment after comment to their own posts without a single comment from others.
American Express......Don't Leave Home Without It.
Quote: Frank Cannon wrote in post #6Eventually all trolls end up talking to only themselves in a hollowed out wasteland. Posting comment after comment to their own posts without a single comment from others.
It takes a very unspecial person to be a troll.
My big question is why would anyone want to be one?
Fortunately I have known very few trolls in my online experiences over the years. But they do stick out and with each one I can think of, the troll was living in a protected environment, enabled by handlers -- it's a very odd power relationship between the troll and his enablers underneath it all!
Feeding that troll part of your being, over an extended part of your life, leads to disease, unfortunate events, ulcers, personality disorders and loneliness.
I guess the proper response is to pray for any troll we know. No harm there. Underneath that troll's unlikable exterior is one VERY unhappy person. And the flip side of that is to find a way to avoid that troll rather than stay under his influence. Life is TOO SHORT!!!
******************* Christianity teaches to share what we have earned, the "cheerful giver" model. Christianity: It's mine but I choose to give away Socialism: What's yours should be mine
I guess the proper response is to pray for any troll we know....
I do pray for that type of person. I pray that they fall down a long flight of stairs and get eaten by a rabid skunk.
Fair enough!
******************* Christianity teaches to share what we have earned, the "cheerful giver" model. Christianity: It's mine but I choose to give away Socialism: What's yours should be mine
I guess the proper response is to pray for any troll we know....
I do pray for that type of person. I pray that they fall down a long flight of stairs and get eaten by a rabid skunk.
This came to my FB this morning. It says my thoughts about trolls in another way.
******************* Christianity teaches to share what we have earned, the "cheerful giver" model. Christianity: It's mine but I choose to give away Socialism: What's yours should be mine