The Psychology of Trolling

TL;DR

People troll to provoke reactions, joke with insiders, disrupt games, make political statements, or engage in cyberbullying, while online anonymity and reduced social cues can weaken their inhibitions. John Suler’s 2004 Online Disinhibition Effect identifies six factors that help explain why people behave differently online, and research also links some aggressive trolling with Machiavellianism, narcissism, and sadism. Read on to understand these motives and the psychology behind them.

Transcript

Since you’re watching SciShow, you’re probably pretty familiar with the Internet -- it’s full of information and awesome communities. But, like any cool and kinda-magical place, it has its dark sides… Even its very own trolls. Trolling is used to describe a lot of different situations. But, basically, it’s when someone posts an off-topic or inflamm... Read More

Key Insights

• 😜 Trolling encompasses a range of behaviors, from harmless pranks to cyberbullying, and the motivations behind it can vary.
• 👯 The Online Disinhibition Effect explains why people behave differently online, including engaging in trolling behavior.
• 🧌 Some personality traits, such as Machiavellianism, narcissism, and sadism, can be associated with those who enjoy trolling.
• 🧌 Communities that have already experienced mean-spirited trolling are more likely to attract similar trolls, while well-moderated communities can discourage harmful trolling.
• 🧌 Individual humanization and understanding the harm caused by trolls can help combat online aggression.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is the psychology behind trolling?

Trolling can arise from several motives, including seeking laughs, irritating others as a joke, disrupting games, making political statements, or deliberately harassing people. The Online Disinhibition Effect suggests that anonymity, invisibility, and other features of online interaction can make people behave differently than they would in real life.

Q: What is trolling?

Trolling is basically posting an off-topic or inflammatory comment to disrupt an online conversation. It ranges from relatively harmless jokes and playful rule-breaking to racial insults, threats, and cyberbullying.

Q: How did internet trolling begin?

Trolling is thought to have begun in the early 1990s on discussion boards such as Usenet. Experienced users posted naive questions or revived over-discussed topics so that newcomers would fall for the joke while established users recognized it.

Q: What is the Online Disinhibition Effect?

John Suler coined the term in 2004 to describe the loosening of social inhibitions associated with internet anonymity. It explains why people may behave differently online than they do in real life, although that difference is not necessarily harmful.

Q: What six factors contribute to the Online Disinhibition Effect?

The six factors are dissociative anonymity, invisibility, asynchronicity, solipsistic introjection, dissociative imagination, and minimization of authority. Together, they can reduce responsibility, obscure social cues, dehumanize other users, make interactions feel unreal, and lessen fear of punishment.

Q: How do anonymity and invisibility encourage trolling?

Dissociative anonymity lets people hide their identities and feel that their online actions cannot be connected to real life, reducing their sense of responsibility. Invisibility removes cues such as eye contact and body language, which can further weaken social inhibitions.

Q: Are all trolls sadistic or narcissistic?

No, the psychology of trolling varies because trolling covers many different behaviors and motivations. Some studies of aggressive trolls have found positive correlations between self-identified trolling and traits associated with the Dark Triad or Dark Tetrad, including Machiavellianism, narcissism, and sadism.

Q: Why can online trolling be harmful even when threats are empty?

Victims may be unable to distinguish an empty threat from a real one online. That uncertainty can leave them stressed and scared, particularly when trolling includes harassment, racial insults, or death threats.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Trolling refers to the act of posting off-topic or inflammatory comments to disrupt online conversations, and it can be both harmless and harmful.

• The internet provides anonymity, which leads to disinhibition and different behavior online compared to real life.

• Research suggests that certain personality traits, such as Machiavellianism, narcissism, and sadism, can be associated with those who enjoy trolling.