Posted on 07/21/2017 2:02:05 AM PDT by iowamark
What does looking into the hearts and minds of online trolls tell us?
That's the question Australian researchers tried to answer in a new study that investigates the psychological profile of trolls — that is, computer users who engage in the disturbing 21st century practice of deliberating provoking, demeaning, and threatening others online.
Researchers at Australia's Federation University used an online questionnaire to look closer at a handful of traits — psychopathy, sadism, and empathy — among those who engage in online trolling. The survey included 415 participants, approximately one-third male and two-thirds female, with a median age of 23 years. The researchers controlled the results for gender, a significant factor given that trolls dramatically skew male.
Participants were asked to engage with a range of questions gauging their levels of psychopathy, sadism and empathy. For instance, to what extent do you agree with the statement "People would enjoy hurting others if they gave it a go"?
In terms of empathy, the researchers looked at a number of different forms that trait can take. For instance, cognitive empathy is the capacity to recognize and properly identify another person's emotions. Affective empathy goes farther, referring to the ability to experience, internalize and respond to those observed emotions. Global empathy refers to the reaction one has when directly observing another's life experience.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Highlights
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Trolling is an online antisocial behaviour with negative psychological outcomes.
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Current study predicted trolling perpetration from gender and personality.
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Trolls more likely to be male with high levels of trait psychopathy and sadism
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Trolls have lower affective empathy, and psychopathy moderates cognitive empathy.
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Results have implications for establishing education and prevention programs.
Abstract
Online trolling is of particular concern due to the harmful negative outcomes its victims experience. The current study sought to explore and extend the personality profile of Internet trolls. After gender was controlled for, psychopathy, sadism, and empathy (affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and social skills) were examined for their predictive utility of trolling behaviour. A sample of 415 participants (36% men, 63% women, 1% other) with a mean age of 23.37 years (SD = 7.19) completed an online questionnaire. Results showed that men were more likely than women to engage in trolling, and higher levels of trait psychopathy and sadism predicted trolling behaviour. Lower levels of affective empathy predicted perpetration of trolling, and trait psychopathy moderated the association between cognitive empathy and trolling. Results indicate that when high on trait psychopathy, trolls employ an empathic strategy of predicting and recognising the emotional suffering of their victims, while abstaining from the experience of these negative emotions. Thus, trolls appear to be master manipulators of both cyber-settings and their victims’ emotions.
“Emotional suffering”, remember the good old days when bullies used to just beat your @ss?
Did @LouiseMensch participate in the study?
Who gives two small piles of fecal matter what someone on the net thinks.
Don’t feed the trolls(unless of course you are having a slooqw day and are bored).
Mind over matter. I don’t mind - they don’t matter.
“remember the good old days when bullies used to just beat your @ss?”
I remember the days when this maniacal drummer in our band used to target bullies and kick their arses. He was sort of a bully, but only towards bullies. He was also sort of a hero to many. Good guy. Joined the USMC and I lost touch.
The psychology of?
The abstract never once mentioned the vast number of trolls who do it for the money.
And the number that have 50 fake accounts that attack anyone against their patron’s position.
A huge portion of them are Leftists useful idiots, ComDem Crazies.
“If I see another 45-year-old white woman from Williamsburg saying ‘black lives matter,’ I’m going to punch you in the mouth” — Leslie Jones
Leslie Jones admitted to trolling herself. She faked it for publicity.
But the press loves a racism with black victim story - lie or not - so it got widely reported.
Exactly. Paid Media Matters trolls have taken away sponsors and taken people off the airwaves.
4chan has the ultimate trolls. They made Shia Labouf go insane.
I had a troll who messed with me and my conservative friends for years. We were commenters on the local newspaper’s electronic version of the paper and formed our own web forum. The troll actually became a member of our web forum to disrupt it and he posted porn and he was banned, but he kept on lurking (he was coming in from an ISP in Virginia in the DC area). On the newspaper commenting, he probably had a dozen accounts and would launch sock puppet attacks on me and the other conservatives who would post, often using information that he gleaned from our web forum. We had a social gathering once and the troll used the information about it on our web forum to post on the newspaper commenting, characterizing it as a Klan meeting and posting the pub where we were having it, including the date and time. We ignored him on the newspaper commenting even though he was spreading lies about us because it’s best not to feed the trolls, but that didn’t stop him from going after us.
A couple of friends finally had enough of the troll and hired a private investigator to find out who he was as exposing a trolls real identity will usually shut them up. It turned out that the guy lived in Northern Virginia, but was originally from where my friends and I live. He was on disability and his wife had a pretty good government job, so he had nothing to do all day but troll and disrupt. He was a true nutcase that fixated on conservatives and particularly on conservatives who posted to my local newspaper and our conservative web forum. After he was exposed, he went away, but we know who he is and where he lives.
I wonder whether the trolls answered honestly - or if they were trolling the researchers.
[He was a true nutcase that fixated on conservatives]
What time slot did they give him on CNN / MSNBC?
I’m 70. Can I become a troll?
All the noise and the filtering on the web is agenda driven. The puzzle? Who’s agenda. It is never about what they preach, it is all about the agenda. Lies on top of lies intended to accomplish a goal of someone hidden in the background.
Propaganda, Agi-Prop, disinformation, harassment. Facebook (I refuse to use), Twitter and others filter content on huge level. They have become more subtle over time about how they do it. On Twitter you can tell if you are being filtered by watching changes in your stats and by searching for your own screen name in quotes. If you see unusual week or 2 voids in results when you search, you are being filtered. I’ve called their hand many times, for short time it will slow down or go away. But then something happens, you hit a hot button and bingo, another game.
I’ve have had a number of friends who have been suspended because of trickery of others who planted false similar accounts and then posted unacceptable content and then filed under another screen name a complaint.
Like the Press-titutes in the MSM, this is all about someone’s agenda. Bought and paid for. Projecting an illusion or attacking anyone who opposes the agenda. (there are many agenda’s, but most linked to other elements of the same agenda.)
Yes, anyone can at any age. It is a true equal opportunity endeavor!
If this question is an example of the kinds of questions these "researchers" were asking, then I wonder how accurate the answers to any of the questions in the survey were.
Do you agree with the statement because *you* would enjoy hurting others? Or do you agree because you have seen people who enjoy hurting others? Does the statement refer to all people, most people, some people, or a few people? What does it really mean?
Results showed that men were more likely than women to engage in trolling, and higher levels of trait psychopathy and sadism predicted trolling behaviour.
I wonder if the survey included any questions on the influence of money on trolling behavior. One could argue that underlying sociopathic tendencies would make it more likely for people to become trolls when offered money from Soros/the DNC/etc. to troll, but that isn't necessarily the case.
Let me guess, the overwhelming majority of trolls are conservative leaning people their study found. Did I guess correctly?
Stay off social media. I can’t say that enough. Don’t plaster one’s personal information on the web.
If you’re on a public website like FR, chose one like FR that has good moderators.
I find many websites also have emergency contact links on Facebook and other social media. In that case I keep my own, secret, non personal profile to such sites, with no links back to any true names or addresses.
REMEMBER:
“Champagne don’t drive me crazy
Cocaine don’t make me lazy
Ain’t nobody’s business but my own
Candy is dandy and liquor is quicker
You can drink all the liquor down at Costa Rica
Ain’t nobody’s business but your own, but my own”
Traditional.... Taj Mahal
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