Internet Trolls Really Are Psychos
Roger Dooley
i Oct 6, 2014, 06:02am 30,020 views
If you've ever managed an online community, a blog, or a brand's Facebook page, you have encountered the dreaded "troll." These community members can be provocative and rude, and are known for creating posts for the sole purpose of agitating their fellow members. Trolls add inflammatory comments not because they hope to inform or convince others, but because they know they'll spark an avalanche of negativity. Left unchecked, trolls can destroy communities. Helpful members tire of the conflict and eventually leave. Trolls present a challenge to community managers not just because of their toxic behavior, but because they don't always overtly break community rules. Many people make comments that prove to be inflammatory, often unintentionally. Trollish behavior is evident only after a pattern of such comments emerges.
Conventional wisdom says that the anonymity of the Internet lets people behave in ways they never would in real life, or online if their identity was known. But, if you think that means that trolls are normally nice people who only act out in their online persona, think again. New research shows that internet trolls are, in real life, narcissists, psychopaths, and sadists.
The paper's title, Trolls Just Want To Have Fun, is amusing, but the findings are anything but funny. Canadian researchers surveyed more than a thousand internet users about their commenting behavior. They then administered a personality test designed to measure, among other things, what's known as the Dark Tetrad. That's a measure of negative traits: sadism, psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism.
The correlation between these negative traits and trollish behavior was striking. No other kind of community participation showed such a relationship.
The research validates what most community managers have always believed: trolls are awful people in real life, too.
These results may not be of much use in curbing trolls online, but it does suggest that trying to stop the behavior by gentle coaching is doomed to fail most of the time. That, too, won't surprise experienced community operators. In my years of community building, I've seen a few trolls that actually tried to mend their ways but inevitably reverted to their old ways.
Since trolls actually derive pleasure from the suffering of others, engaging with them at all can be counter-productive. Instead, follow the simple maxim of experienced community leaders: "Don't feed the trolls."
Roger Dooley is the author of Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing (Wiley, 2011). Find Roger on Twitter as @rogerdooley and at his website, Neuromarketing.
#1: buckeroo To: tpaine, tater, AKA Stone (#0)
On LF, it is all the time. tater is a protected punk by AKA Stone.
buckeroo posted on 2018-07-15 14:08:38 Reply Private Reply
#2: tpaine To: All, and our chief psycho, GATLIN (#0)
Its one of gatlins favourites...
tpaine posted on 2018-07-15 14:09:22 Reply Private Reply
#3: Hank Rearden To: tpaine (#0)
It makes them crazy and thus makes me happy.
If that's psycho, well ok then. I call it schadenfreude.
Hank Rearden posted on 2018-07-15 14:43:19 Reply Private Reply
#4: Hondo68 To: buckeroo, tatersnake, endangered species (#1)
The tater snake is an endangered species, gotta save the planet.
Save the tater!
Hondo68 posted on 2018-07-15 14:52:30 Reply Private Reply
#5: buckeroo To: hondo68 (#4)
What good would it be?
buckeroo posted on 2018-07-15 17:06:36 Reply Private Reply
#6: Tooconservative To: buckeroo (#1)
He probably buys immunity from Stone by sending him $5-$10 a month. And an exchange of phone numbers.
That's what he did with Goldi at LP if you recall.
Tooconservative posted on 2018-07-16 10:16:13 Reply Private Reply
#7: Deckard To: tpaine (#0)
I don't know anyone here that exhibits those negative traits.
Oh wait a sec - sure I do.
Instead, follow the simple maxim of experienced community leaders: "Don't feed the trolls."
Seems to be working so far.
Trolls add inflammatory comments not because they hope to inform or convince others, but because they know they'll spark an avalanche of negativity.
Apparently they are starved for attention - any kind, either negative or positive.
A rather submissive way to interact it seems to me.
Deckard posted on 2018-07-16 10:50:59 Reply Private Reply
#8: CZ82 To: buckeroo (#1)
Seriously who was the last poster to be banned by Stone??
CZ82 posted on 2018-07-16 13:11:01 Reply Private Reply
#9: CZ82 To: Hank Rearden (#3)
I'm surprised they allow that as intolerant as they are and also hate being reminded as to their silliness.
CZ82 posted on 2018-07-16 13:14:23 Reply Private Reply
#10: Hank Rearden To: CZ82 (#9)
Depends on the site. I lasted about five minutes on Mother Jones, Huffington Post and DU before being consigned to the memory hole.
Hank Rearden posted on 2018-07-16 13:24:17 Reply Private Reply
#11: CZ82 To: Hank Rearden (#10)
Yeah that doesn't surprise me, lol.
CZ82 posted on 2018-07-16 13:52:13 Reply Private Reply
#12: Deckard To: CZ82, Hank Rearden (#11)
DU is the mirror image of FR.
Deckard posted on 2018-07-16 14:47:07 Reply Private Reply
#13: VxH To: Deckard (#12)
Dividing the sheeple for dialectic class warfare.
Got caricature?
VxH posted on 2018-07-17 10:32:45 Reply Private Reply
#14: Hondo68 To: CZ82, buckeroo, Deckard, A K A Stone, Fred Mertz (#8)
Fred Mertz, prior to that it was me. I believe that he got the ax on the Dinosaur thread. It was a good opportunity to explain that Freddy is using the wrong calender, but he got banned instead.
Free Fred!
Hondo68 posted on 2018-07-18 00:48:40 Reply Private Reply
#15: A K A Stone To: hondo68 (#14)
A K A Stone posted on 2018-07-18 07:02:43 Reply Private Reply
#16: Deckard To: A K A Stone, hondo68, Fred Mertz (#15)
Yet Gatlin remains, crapping all over your site.
Selective enforcement?
And guess what - some of the stuff you've posted would qualify you as an asshole - ever consider banning yourself?
Deckard posted on 2018-07-18 08:14:50 Reply Private Reply
#17: Gatlin To: Deckard (#16)
Gatlin posted on 2018-07-18 09:31:53 Reply Private Reply
#18: Gatlin To: Deckard (#16)
How can you possibley even think for one moment about the utterly tragic possibility of LF being at a loss of my valuable services….how?
Gatlin posted on 2018-07-18 10:36:23 Reply Private Reply
#19: Deckard To: Gatlin (#18)
And the insanity continues.
How can you possibley even think for one moment about the utterly tragic possibility of LF being at a loss of my valuable services
Yes indeed - the sane posters here point at you and laugh at your every post - you are only good for mocking and total derision.
Deckard posted on 2018-07-18 10:41:09 Reply Private Reply
#20: Gatlin To: Deckard (#19)
Gatlin posted on 2018-07-18 11:19:24 Reply Private Reply
#21: buckeroo To: A K A Stone, hondo68, Fred Mertz, tater (#15)
Why not get rid of tater to ensure LF is back on course to discuss solid topics? tater is a fuckin' troll and you bought into his game plan.
buckeroo posted on 2018-07-19 22:58:38 Reply Private Reply
#22: CZ82 To: hondo68 (#14)
Fred comes and goes so much I hadn't really noticed bta I haven't been here that much in the last year or so either. I've been having fun messing with all of the Trump Derangement Syndrome retards on one of the "so called" Christian forums. I don't think the owners would know what Christianity is even if it bit them in the ass. And the best part is some of the moderators are worse than the TDS posters. lol
CZ82 posted on 2018-07-20 07:00:31 Reply Private Reply
#23: GrandIsland To: Tooconservative (#6)
That’s a little under the belt. Stone doesn’t take contributions... like Goldi and the wheelchair RINO did/does.
My guess is, Stone would like to keep this SOLELY, his house. Paid for by him. Don’t respect it... bye bye.
I don’t blame him.
Even you can admit that Fred was a disrespectful asshole to Stone, inside Stones house... every chance he had.
GrandIsland posted on 2018-07-20 08:05:14 Reply Private Reply
#24: A K A Stone To: Tooconservative (#6)
A K A Stone posted on 2018-07-20 08:07:31 Reply Private Reply
#25: Hondo68 To: Gatlin, Deckard, buckeroo, Fred Mertz (#17)
Time for a change, you're stinking up the joint.
Hondo68 posted on 2018-07-20 19:57:41 Reply Private Reply
#26: Gatlin To: Tooconservative (#6)
Gatlin posted on 2018-07-20 20:41:12 Reply Private Reply
#27: buckeroo To: hondo68 (#25)
That nitwit, tater, fucked LF; it sits around the clock on its fat ass to fuck the channel. Placing a value of its contributions to LF on a scale from 0 to 100, I would have to say it is lower than whaleshit laying at the bottom of the ocean.
buckeroo posted on 2018-07-20 23:17:38 Reply Private Reply
#28: Gatlin To: buckeroo A K A Stone (#27)
lol ...
If you don’t like my posts and Stone continues to ignore your call to ban me....then I hope you will not resort to doing a Disruption of Service (DOS) attack and shut this site down like the time you shut down Liberty Post once (that I know of). That was really nasty of you. Just saying ...
Gatlin posted on 2018-07-20 23:27:28 Reply Private Reply
#29: CZ82 To: Deckard (#16)
That will never happen he needs an audience to thrive and people he thinks he can embarrass and bully. But it's the reason he left for awhile, he thought he had lost his audience when his bozo count got up to double digits. So it was on to greener pastures for awhile, but he's now back so it makes you wonder who kicked him to the curb elsewhere?
CZ82 posted on 2018-07-21 09:16:03 Reply Private Reply
#30: CZ82 To: Gatlin (#28)
CZ82 posted on 2018-07-21 09:23:47 Reply Private Reply
#31: Gatlin To: CZ82, A K A Stone (#30)
Anyone who personally insults the owner of a forum should be banned.
Gatlin posted on 2018-07-21 10:00:18 Reply Private Reply
#32: Liberator To: Tooconservative, CZ82, A K A Stone (#6)
Yes, the two Commies indeed bought immunitah at LP. And were allowed to drop deuces all over the forum. We also witnessed he Exortionist/Doxxing-Wannabe Partner-in-Crime, the "Admiral" -- who also demanded poster IP addies and other access from Stone to conduct their "investigation". Who apparently obliged.
The two Brownshirt-Commies also convinced Goldi to lie on their behalf, forced changes of "official" stories, and deleted several incriminating threads.
If the owner of this forum is that much interested in killing an LF that already running on fumes, it appears RIP is at hand.
Liberator posted on 2018-07-21 13:39:26 Reply Private Reply
#33: Tooconservative To: Liberator (#32)
I still find it funny that he was using a VPN service named HideMyAss.com. You couldn't hardly make up something like that.
Tooconservative posted on 2018-07-22 20:52:47 Reply Private Reply