As all MMO players and most Internet users know, trolls are not just ugly gnarled creatures who live under bridges. Nor are they simply collectable dolls with neon-colored locks. Well, who knows, maybe they do live under bridges and dye their hair, but the point is, in today’s day and age the label “troll” has taken on a whole new meaning.
What are these trolly characters then? Well, if you don’t know, you’re a very lucky individual indeed. Wikipedia defines them as “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.”
In other words, they’re the schoolyard bullies of the web. The kind of folks who visit a Shirley Temple fan site and start hurling vitriol about how they hate the blankity-blank elderly while suggesting the fans just shut up and go feed their cats … all 39 of them.
Well, for those of you who have encountered these louts and ever wondered if there’s something out of whack in their noggins, it turns out you’re not far off. New research— conducted by Erin Buckels, a graduate student from the University of Manitoba, and her two psych professor colleagues, Paul Trapnell of the University of Winnipeg and Delroy Paulhus of the University of British Columbia—seems to suggest that online trolls are a bunch of sadistic sociopaths.
How’d they land there? Well, online survey respondents were questioned about their Internet habits, including how much time they normally spent online and whether they frequented and commented on things like news websites and YouTube videos. And then once the researchers isolated those with troll-like tendencies, they’d dish out a series of test questions that measured responses against something that the world of psychology calls a “Dark Tetrad:” Machiavellianism (a willingness to manipulate and deceive others), narcissism (a sense of egotism and self-obsession), psychopathy (the lack of remorse and empathy), and sadism (pleasure in the suffering of others).
“It was sadism … that had the most robust associations with trolling of any of the personality measures,” the researchers were quoted as saying in a CNN article. “In fact, the associations between sadism and [trollish tendencies] were so strong that it might be said that online trolls are prototypical everyday sadists.”
Yep, instead of just being your run-of-the-mill cyberbully who gets angry and spouts off anonymously, trolls are actually wired to offend for the sheer fun of tormenting whoever’s reading what they spill. So, there you have it. Scientific proof that, just as you thought, those nasty trolls are being vile and gruff just to get your goat.
Oh, yeah, I just said that, Billy.
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