[jr2]

Supposedly they score high in the "Dark Tetrad of personality: narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadistic personality." 


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

Internet Trolls Are Narcissists, Psychopaths, and Sadists
By Jennifer Golbeck, Ph.D. on September 18, 2014 - 2:21pm

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.

Photo adapted from original by Kevin Dooley

[Aardwolf]

Aren't those results kind of... obvious?

Also, they should've had a category for people whose preferred Internet activity was just "reading"

[Mongoose]

I think that would be the "non-commenter" category, i.e. people who don't post anything.

[jr2]

Lurker

[MP-Ryan]

For people who prefer the horse's mouth to the sheep next door:  Ze study.  People with college/university student IDs will probably be able to read it through their library logins.

Abstract

In two online studies (total N = 1215), respondents completed personality inventories and a survey of their Internet commenting styles. Overall, strong positive associations emerged among online commenting frequency, trolling enjoyment, and troll identity, pointing to a common construct underlying the measures. Both studies revealed similar patterns of relations between trolling and the Dark Tetrad of personality: trolling correlated positively with sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, using both enjoyment ratings and identity scores. Of all personality measures, sadism showed the most robust associations with trolling and, importantly, the relationship was specific to trolling behavior. Enjoyment of other online activities, such as chatting and debating, was unrelated to sadism. Thus cyber-trolling appears to be an Internet manifestation of everyday sadism.

No surprises there.  Big sample size, though, that's impressive.

[Dragon]

This is not surprising. This kind of people are more common than we think. In most cases, the presence of other people forces their suppression, since it's difficult to survive by openly displaying this kind of behavior. However, the internet ensures that this behavior can go unpunished, so they exploit it. Funny thing, they might be so good at concealing those traits that IRL, they appear personable and even nice. Even to the point of getting elected/hired into positions of power. An internet troll could literally be anyone.

[InsaneBaron]

My reaction: results seem pretty accurate, but... didn't everyone know this already?

[Kopachris]

Plot twist: they were trolling the researchers by artificially inflating their tetrad scores.

[InsaneBaron]

Plot twist: they were trolling the researchers by artificially inflating their tetrad scores.

Plausible. But they would have to have significant Dark Tetrad Evulz just to lie about their Dark Tetrad Evulz. Mind screw!

[Aardwolf]

Plot twist: they were trolling the researchers by artificially inflating their tetrad scores.

Plausible. But they would have to have significant Dark Tetrad Evulz just to lie about their Dark Tetrad Evulz. Mind screw!

Logical fallacy: begging the question.

[Scotty]

Plot twist: they were trolling the researchers by artificially inflating their tetrad scores.

Plausible. But they would have to have significant Dark Tetrad Evulz just to lie about their Dark Tetrad Evulz. Mind screw!

Logical fallacy: begging the question.

Any respectable study would phrase the statement in a way that avoids begging the question.

[InsaneBaron]

Plot twist: they were trolling the researchers by artificially inflating their tetrad scores.

Plausible. But they would have to have significant Dark Tetrad Evulz just to lie about their Dark Tetrad Evulz. Mind screw!

Logical fallacy: begging the question.

I was making a joke.

Here's my more serious question: what exactly did the study hope to accomplish? I mean, it might be useful to someone to have scientific numbers on the topic, but the answer to the basic question (do trolls have dark tetrad characteristics?) is so obvious that you could call it a tautology. Trolls are machievellian phsyco-narcissistic sadists almost by definition.

EDIT: I'm going on the extract of what MP-Ryan posted plus the OP article, so maybe I'm missing something from the study proper.

[Scotty]

The study wasn't as targeted as "Are trolls assholes", that finding is the result of the study being aimed at identifying personality traits based on internet posting habits.

[Bobboau]

wow so we now have a formal rigorous research paper to tell us that trolls are assholes and that the best way to deal with them is to ignore them.

[jr2]

This is not surprising. This kind of people are more common than we think. In most cases, the presence of other people forces their suppression, since it's difficult to survive by openly displaying this kind of behavior. However, the internet ensures that this behavior can go unpunished, so they exploit it. Funny thing, they might be so good at concealing those traits that IRL, they appear personable and even nice. Even to the point of getting elected/hired into positions of power. An internet troll could literally be anyone.

Pretty much my thoughts exactly.

[Kopachris]

For people who prefer the horse's mouth to the sheep next door:  Ze study.  People with college/university student IDs will probably be able to read it through their library logins.

Found a direct link with no login/subscription requirement: http://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/trolls-just-want-to-have-fun.pdf

[FrikgFeek]

What kind of trolls are we talking about exactly? The kind that subtly baits you into an argument you can't win(because the troll isn't playing by the rules)and then laugh as you get emotional about it or the kind that just spews out harassment and hatred in the hopes that someone will notice them?
I mean, the study just says they post comments to upset people, but I'm not completely sure they've got their definition of a troll straight.

[InsaneBaron]

For people who prefer the horse's mouth to the sheep next door:  Ze study.  People with college/university student IDs will probably be able to read it through their library logins.

Found a direct link with no login/subscription requirement: http://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/trolls-just-want-to-have-fun.pdf

Ah, thanks a lot.

[InsaneBaron]

What kind of trolls are we talking about exactly? The kind that subtly baits you into an argument you can't win(because the troll isn't playing by the rules)and then laugh as you get emotional about it or the kind that just spews out harassment and hatred in the hopes that someone will notice them?
I mean, the study just says they post comments to upset people, but I'm not completely sure they've got their definition of a troll straight.

Both kinds would fall under the definition of Troll. It's just that the former are more subtle about it.

[Hades]

I find this study offensive