LibertyNews... Major Canadian University Releases New Scientific Study That Says “Internet Trolls” Who Enjoy Provoking Extreme Negative Responses During Online Debates Have “Psychological Traits That Are Narcissistic, Psychopathic, and Sadistic!
If you’ve ever been in an online debate with people who are trying to rationally discuss conflicting ideas when a third party enters the conversation just to provoke extreme negative reactions and argue just for the sake of arguing, you’ve encountered an “internet troll.”
According to The Blaze, University of Manitoba researchers decided to undertake a formal study to test various online communicators to see how their personality traits lined up with their conversational tactics.
After “respondents completed personality inventories and a survey of their Internet commenting styles,” Erin Buckels and two associates then graphed their communication styles alongside their personality characteristics.
The test showed “trolls” comprised 5.6 percent of all those surveyed.
The results strongly indicated that the respondents who classified as trolls exhibited “Psychological traits that are narcissistic, psychopathic, and sadistic,” reports The Daily Mail.
Ms. Buckels says that trolls meet basic criteria for these “dark” personality characteristics because they tend to be self-absorbed, angry people whose chief reason for debating isn’t to make their position known or to discuss facts or opinions; rather, their enjoyment comes from causing pain.
She and her team feel so strongly that “cyber-trolling appears to be an Internet manifestation of everyday sadism” that the results of their publicly viewable research bears the title, “Trolls Just Want to Have Fun.”
It should be noted that the team’s research showed major differences between people who enjoy reading online, chatting, debating, and generally discussing controversial topics, vs. trolls, whose enjoyment comes from making people feel angry, sad, hurt, or belittled.
Joe is a Global War on Terrorism veteran of the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from Regent University's College of Arts and Sciences and a M.A. in American Government from The Robertson School of Government. He is a former National Journalism Center Intern with Human Events. He is the Political and Public Policy Analyst for Liberty News and a staff writer for "Liberty Intel," an exclusive subscription based report published by LibertyNEWS.com.