Decoded: What makes online trolls so mean

July 06, 2017 14:38

Why does the Internet bring out the worst traits in mankind?

Researchers at the School of Health Science and Psychology at Federation University in Mount Helen in Australia set out to discover what traits in "normal' people (social media users above age 18 who did not appear to be trolls) that might make them susceptible to trolling behaviour, writes Cassie Werber in qz.com.

Some 415 men and women were tested for a range of personality traits, as well as for online behavior that indicated a propensity to troll -- such as agreeing with the statement, 'Although some people think my posts/comments are offensive, I think they are funny.'

And the "trolls' in the study scored higher than average on two traits: psychopathy and cognitive empathy, she writes.

The study is forthcoming in the journal Personality and Individual Differences. It doesn't offer advice on how to stop trolling behavior, but adds a wrinkle to our knowledge of why people act out online, says Cassie Werber, here.

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