Dev.SN

Canadian Study Links Trolling to Sadism

posted by LaminatorX on Tuesday March 04 2014, @05:00PM   
from the Is-feeding-them-masochism? dept.

Members kef and einar have written about some recent research:

"A new study from the University of Manitoba has claimed that internet trolls might not be so nice or mentally stable in real life. While previous studies have shown that people with negative character traits are using the internet more frequently for their own amusement, not to socialize, the results seem to link trolling to sadism. Two surveys among amazon's mechanical turk users were conducted which allowed creating a character profile of the participants. Based on the profile, internet behavior could be correlated with different character traits. Trolling appears to be correlated to sadism.

From the study:

... 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. ... To be sure, only 5.6 percent of survey respondents actually specified that they enjoyed "trolling." By contrast, 41.3 percent of Internet users were "non-commenters," meaning they didn't like engaging online at all. So trolls are, as has often been suspected, a minority of online commenters, and an even smaller minority of overall Internet users.

• That just confirms it That just confirms it (Score: 5, Funny) by Skarjak on Tuesday March 04 2014, @05:08PM

  by Skarjak (730) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @05:08PM (#10961)

  I knew you guys were all assholes. :p

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• Re:That just confirms it Re:That just confirms it (Score: 3, Insightful) by buswolley on Tuesday March 04 2014, @05:48PM

  by buswolley (848) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @05:48PM (#10992)

  A good troll is better than a bad human

  Not all trolls are about sadism. Sometimes they are meant to be didactic.

  --
  subicular junctures

  Parent

  • Re:That just confirms it Re:That just confirms it (Score: 5, Insightful) by wjwlsn on Tuesday March 04 2014, @06:00PM

    by wjwlsn (171) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @06:00PM (#10997) Homepage Journal

    You know you've been trolled by an artist when, after hitting "Submit" to post your reply (whether scathing reproach or gushing admiration), you get a little feeling at the base of your skull that seems to say "hey, wait a minute... wtf just happened?".

    The best trolls actually raise the level of conversation.

    --
    I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.

    Parent

    • Re:That just confirms it (Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday March 04 2014, @06:30PM

      by nitehawk214 (1304) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @06:30PM (#11026)

      The best trolls actually raise the level of conversation.

      Or is he just trolling... The world wonders...

      --
      "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh

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