What makes people troll

There are a few general giveaways that indicate you may be dealing with a troll. Trolls will frequently try to attack something you have revealed you like or are in favor of.

Another way to spot a troll is by their persistence. Trolls are also known for their outlandish and outrageous claims. They will often make ridiculous statements about the subject at hand, again with the expectation that they will get an emotional response out of people. Typically, the best thing to do is ignore the troll. Do not engage this person in an argument or discussion. I want to find out what sort of person takes it upon themselves to bully and berate others online?

What happens inside their brains when they fire off an offensive or inflammatory comment? We define trolling as deceptive and disruptive online behaviour, which typically involves posting inflammatory and malicious comments to deliberately provoke and upset people. It depends who you ask: the nature versus nurture debate continues to rage on, and no doubt will forever. However, according to Sigmund Freud oh he of Oedipal complex fame , the development of the unconscious personality during early childhood influences our behaviour for the rest of our lives.

Freud believes that the human develops, early in life, three aspects of their personality. These include the id, the ego and the superego Seltzer The id is considered to be primitive, supplying unconscious drives for food and sex. The ego is formed as sort of a guide to remain aligned with societal norms.

And, finally, the superego develops incorporating values and morals. It makes sense, then, that some believe trolls to be overwhelmed by their id. Citing the popular attachment theory, which emphasises the relationship with a main caregiver in the first year of life, Ben-Ari explains that there are three main attachment styles: secure, avoidant and anxious. In other words they have a positive view on themselves and the other. However, there is a little-known fourth attachment style: disorganised.

And it is this one which Ben-Ari believes could inspire bullying behaviour later in life. But they score low on affective empathy.

And, as you can imagine, these are all what we would understand as quite undesirable traits in others. Kaye goes on to tell me that, while those high in psychopathy are likely to engage in trolling behaviours, these traits generally tend to be associated with aspects of anti-social behaviours.

Far from it, in fact: one online poll saw over a quarter of Americans admit to having engaged in trolling at some point. This can also increase the likelihood of people being trolls in that particular situation. They completed an anonymous, confidential online questionnaire, which assessed personality and self-esteem.

Read more: Women troll on dating apps just as often as men. The study also measured the extent to which participants displayed troll-like behaviours. For example:. Results showed that gender, psychopathy, and sadism were all significant independent predictors of malevolent trolling.

That is, if you are male, have high psychopathy, or high sadism, you are more likely to troll. The most powerful predictor of trolling was sadism. The more someone enjoys hurting others, the more likely it is they will troll. However, we found self-esteem interacts with sadism.

So, if a person had high levels of sadism and high self-esteem, they were more likely to troll. This result was unexpected because low self-esteem has predicted other antisocial online behaviour, such as cyberbullying.

First, based on the results of psychopathy and sadism, we understand the internet troll as someone who is callous, lacks a sense of personal responsibility and enjoys causing others harm.

On top of this, the interaction between high sadism and high self-esteem suggests trolls are not trolling because they have low self-worth. In fact, this is quite the opposite. The more someone enjoys hurting others and the better they feel about themselves, the more likely they are to troll. Unfortunately, the psychological profile of an internet troll means you will not get far appealing to their sense of humanity. Their character is far more complex, which makes managing the behaviour all the more challenging.