What's new

Psychology behind Trolls & How to deal with them

Spectre

SENIOR MEMBER
Joined
Jun 4, 2015
Messages
3,735
Reaction score
46
Country
India
Location
India
Past few days I have observed increased trolling at PDF. Some of the comments posted openly advocated genocide, racism and disgustingly personal attacks. It would be too easy to attribute them to nationalistic rivalries. These comments can form a mindset that there is a worrying amount of hatred from the other side directed at us and hence lead to similar response which can then cascade into a troll-fest derailing all sensible discussion.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, why do trolls troll and how should we manage them? Although research in this area is still in its infancy, a few psychological studies have attempted to answer these questions. There are three important lessons learned.

First, trolls are more likely to display noxious personality characteristics, that is, traits that impair one’s ability to build relations and function in a civilised or pro-social way. In a comprehensive examination of their psychological profile, trolls were found to be more Machiavellian (impulsive and charming manipulators), psychopathic (cold, fearless and antisocial), and especially sadist than the overall population.

Trolls enjoy harming and intimidating others, so much so that it can be concluded that trolls are “prototypical everyday sadists”, and that trolling should be regarded as online sadism. This is in line with the view of trolling as a form of cyberbullying.

Second, trolling – like other forms of computer-mediated communication – unleashes people’s impulses by providing anonymity and temporary identity loss. This phenomenon, called deindividuation, is well known to psychologists and has been found to emerge in several areas of interpersonal relations, such as gaming, role-playing and crowd behaviours, particularly hooliganism. Thus even when we are not naturally sadistic, trolling may bring out the worst side in us, by lifting the moral constrains and social etiquette that regulates our behaviour in normal situations, and by fuelling dissent and triggering abrasive reactions.

Third, trolling is a status-enhancing activity: by attracting readers’ attention, upsetting people, sparking heated debates, and even gaining approval from others, trolls can feel important, perhaps much more than they are in their real lives. Thus trolling is yet another internet activity that promotes narcissistic motives, since trolls may be expected to be far less successful in attracting people’s attention in the physical world. The only effective antidote to their tactics is to ignore them, but even then trolls won’t suffer a public humiliation because nobody knows who they are. This is what makes trolling so ubiquitous – it requires no skills other than the ability to be obnoxious.

So, how can trolls be managed? As recent reviews have shown, sites, editors and authors can take concrete measures to minimise trolling. Disabling anonymity, moderating comments and banning offenders, as well as predicting whether an article is likely to promote trolling, are all effective steps.

There is often a thin line between wanting to drive traffic and enticing trolling, so content editors and site managers must act responsibly and beware of the consequences of pushing for too much controversy. As for readers, they should try to disengage with trolls and report them. Perhaps the biggest advantage of dealing with the online manifestations of antisocial behaviour is that we can use technology to tackle them. In fact, it is easier to detect, track and manage aggression online than offline.

Reference

Buckels, Erin E., Paul D. Trapnell, and Delroy L. Paulhus. "Trolls just want to have fun.

@levina @FaujHistorian @Nihonjin1051 @Syed.Ali.Haider @Norwegian @WAJsal @nForce
 
.
Disabling anonymity, moderating comments and banning offenders, as well as predicting whether an article is likely to promote trolling, are all effective steps.

These are all actions up to the management to implement as they see fit on their website. Members can only report, tolerate, suffer, or leave.
 
. .
Past few days I have observed increased trolling at PDF. Some of the comments posted openly advocated genocide, racism and disgustingly personal attacks. It would be too easy to attribute them to nationalistic rivalries. These comments can form a mindset that there is a worrying amount of hatred from the other side directed at us and hence lead to similar response which can then cascade into a troll-fest derailing all sensible discussion.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, why do trolls troll and how should we manage them? Although research in this area is still in its infancy, a few psychological studies have attempted to answer these questions. There are three important lessons learned.

First, trolls are more likely to display noxious personality characteristics, that is, traits that impair one’s ability to build relations and function in a civilised or pro-social way. In a comprehensive examination of their psychological profile, trolls were found to be more Machiavellian (impulsive and charming manipulators), psychopathic (cold, fearless and antisocial), and especially sadist than the overall population.

Trolls enjoy harming and intimidating others, so much so that it can be concluded that trolls are “prototypical everyday sadists”, and that trolling should be regarded as online sadism. This is in line with the view of trolling as a form of cyberbullying.

Second, trolling – like other forms of computer-mediated communication – unleashes people’s impulses by providing anonymity and temporary identity loss. This phenomenon, called deindividuation, is well known to psychologists and has been found to emerge in several areas of interpersonal relations, such as gaming, role-playing and crowd behaviours, particularly hooliganism. Thus even when we are not naturally sadistic, trolling may bring out the worst side in us, by lifting the moral constrains and social etiquette that regulates our behaviour in normal situations, and by fuelling dissent and triggering abrasive reactions.

Third, trolling is a status-enhancing activity: by attracting readers’ attention, upsetting people, sparking heated debates, and even gaining approval from others, trolls can feel important, perhaps much more than they are in their real lives. Thus trolling is yet another internet activity that promotes narcissistic motives, since trolls may be expected to be far less successful in attracting people’s attention in the physical world. The only effective antidote to their tactics is to ignore them, but even then trolls won’t suffer a public humiliation because nobody knows who they are. This is what makes trolling so ubiquitous – it requires no skills other than the ability to be obnoxious.

So, how can trolls be managed? As recent reviews have shown, sites, editors and authors can take concrete measures to minimise trolling. Disabling anonymity, moderating comments and banning offenders, as well as predicting whether an article is likely to promote trolling, are all effective steps.

There is often a thin line between wanting to drive traffic and enticing trolling, so content editors and site managers must act responsibly and beware of the consequences of pushing for too much controversy. As for readers, they should try to disengage with trolls and report them. Perhaps the biggest advantage of dealing with the online manifestations of antisocial behaviour is that we can use technology to tackle them. In fact, it is easier to detect, track and manage aggression online than offline.

Reference

Buckels, Erin E., Paul D. Trapnell, and Delroy L. Paulhus. "Trolls just want to have fun.

@levina @FaujHistorian @Nihonjin1051 @Syed.Ali.Haider @Norwegian @WAJsal @nForce


Oh PDF is much much better.

Just watch what goes on on Indian news paper comment section.

Ours here is PG compared to Indian news papers.

Just watch for trolls from Indian side. and try to tell them "cool it".

Let's do the same to Pakistani sides.

This is not a big issue on PDF considering how fan boys go mad on a lot of other forums.


Peace
 
. .
Oh PDF is much much better.

Just watch what goes on on Indian news paper comment section.

Ours here is PG compared to Indian news papers.

Just watch for trolls from Indian side. and try to tell them "cool it".

Let's do the same to Pakistani sides.

This is not a big issue on PDF considering how fan boys go mad on a lot of other forums.


Peace

I prefer not to read any Indian newspaper except for Hindu, if the content and editorial quality of mainstream newspapers like ToI is so pathetic, I can only imagine what would be their comments sections be like. /shudders

PDF is the only online forum, I participate in. I was doing some research work and chanced upon this site and got hooked so much so that it has become a guilty pleasure :(
 
.
How do you get somebody to speak of his mind ? Very simple! Give him the power of anonymity!
Human beings realized that long back and hence we have the system of Confession in different religions and cultures.

Well, it's pretty much the same thing with trolling. Probably, one will not be hurling racial abuses on his Facebook account, because there, he has his own identity, probably a reputation to live up to, which his defined by his friend list.

But in a forum like this, everybody has an option to be anonymous, which most of us do. Hence everybody is free to say whatever comes to their mind and free to troll.

If one has the ability to look beyond the usual trolling then one will realize, one good thing about it is, people speak of their mind here!! Yes!! that's who we are, and not what we pretend to be on social-media platforms like Facebook!! :)

p.s. I have been working on an idea of my own for sometime, where this is one of the salient points/features.
 
.
Deep, real deep, this post. :D
I've been on the receiving end many times, on and off the forum.
I guess I've become more dare-devilish now. :smokin:

But its fine..mods and those in management have been good to me, so I dont have anything to complain about. :disagree:

How do you get somebody to speak of his mind ? Very simple! Give him the power of anonymity!
Human beings realized that long back and hence we have the system of Confession in different religions and cultures.
How many times have you seen me hurling abuses here???
anonymity is no excuse to lalochezia. JMHO!
 
.
I've been on the receiving end many times, on and off the forum.
I guess I've become more dare-devilish now. :smokin:

But its fine..mods and those in management have been good to me, so I dont have anything to complain about. :disagree:

I hope to evolve too, to be able to function better, in such an environment. The mistakes I made initially were just an indication of my naivete at that time, hopefully on the path to being reduced now, as I learn my lessons.
 
. .
Past few days I have observed increased trolling at PDF. Some of the comments posted openly advocated genocide, racism and disgustingly personal attacks. It would be too easy to attribute them to nationalistic rivalries. These comments can form a mindset that there is a worrying amount of hatred from the other side directed at us and hence lead to similar response which can then cascade into a troll-fest derailing all sensible discussion.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, why do trolls troll and how should we manage them? Although research in this area is still in its infancy, a few psychological studies have attempted to answer these questions. There are three important lessons learned.

First, trolls are more likely to display noxious personality characteristics, that is, traits that impair one’s ability to build relations and function in a civilised or pro-social way. In a comprehensive examination of their psychological profile, trolls were found to be more Machiavellian (impulsive and charming manipulators), psychopathic (cold, fearless and antisocial), and especially sadist than the overall population.

Trolls enjoy harming and intimidating others, so much so that it can be concluded that trolls are “prototypical everyday sadists”, and that trolling should be regarded as online sadism. This is in line with the view of trolling as a form of cyberbullying.

Second, trolling – like other forms of computer-mediated communication – unleashes people’s impulses by providing anonymity and temporary identity loss. This phenomenon, called deindividuation, is well known to psychologists and has been found to emerge in several areas of interpersonal relations, such as gaming, role-playing and crowd behaviours, particularly hooliganism. Thus even when we are not naturally sadistic, trolling may bring out the worst side in us, by lifting the moral constrains and social etiquette that regulates our behaviour in normal situations, and by fuelling dissent and triggering abrasive reactions.

Third, trolling is a status-enhancing activity: by attracting readers’ attention, upsetting people, sparking heated debates, and even gaining approval from others, trolls can feel important, perhaps much more than they are in their real lives. Thus trolling is yet another internet activity that promotes narcissistic motives, since trolls may be expected to be far less successful in attracting people’s attention in the physical world. The only effective antidote to their tactics is to ignore them, but even then trolls won’t suffer a public humiliation because nobody knows who they are. This is what makes trolling so ubiquitous – it requires no skills other than the ability to be obnoxious.

So, how can trolls be managed? As recent reviews have shown, sites, editors and authors can take concrete measures to minimise trolling. Disabling anonymity, moderating comments and banning offenders, as well as predicting whether an article is likely to promote trolling, are all effective steps.

There is often a thin line between wanting to drive traffic and enticing trolling, so content editors and site managers must act responsibly and beware of the consequences of pushing for too much controversy. As for readers, they should try to disengage with trolls and report them. Perhaps the biggest advantage of dealing with the online manifestations of antisocial behaviour is that we can use technology to tackle them. In fact, it is easier to detect, track and manage aggression online than offline.

Reference

Buckels, Erin E., Paul D. Trapnell, and Delroy L. Paulhus. "Trolls just want to have fun.

@levina @FaujHistorian @Nihonjin1051 @Syed.Ali.Haider @Norwegian @WAJsal @nForce
Worst part is mods sleeping throughout the day, now Irfan Baloch has been doing a good job. He can't do it alone. Mods need to stay online more often.
Other than that Trolls need to get a life.
 
. . .
:(
I told you about it perhaps a month ago. That's about time I had started. Okay, I'll try to step on the gas a bit more..lots of work!!
Noooohhhh :disagree:
You reminded me about it a month ago.
You've a bad memory!!! :rolleyes:

Off the forum?

Levina Ji

Off the forum? what does that mean. Local mall? :-)
aap facebook pe nahi honaaaa, Issliye you wont understand. :lol:
 
.
sometimes they are really annoying when they totally mutilate a perfect discussion by their "I know it all" tone of bullcrap spilling.
Specifically Indian Aristrolls (Aristotle Trolls-The all knowing wise indian)
 
.

Latest posts

Pakistan Defence Latest Posts

Pakistan Affairs Latest Posts

Country Latest Posts

Back
Top Bottom