The Bad Boys and Girls of Cyberspace

Abstract

A significant feature of virtual interactions involve online deviance and trolling; these include behaviors that range from mild mischief, to offensive language, to hacking and trolling, and to expression of complex social problem, such as by revolutionaries, freedom fighters, or pedophiles. Yet little research has examined online trolling in general or the impact of gender and context on these behaviors in particular. By focusing on the effects of gender and context on perceptions of and reactions to online trolling, this article enhances Suler and Phillips' framework for online deviance. Results indicate that men and women react differently to online trolling, and their perceptions of the impact of trolling on online communities vary; men and women identify different motivations for similar behaviors in different communities, and they both perceive that men and women trolls differ in their behavior and motivation. The study concludes with suggestions for future research.

Dark Participation in Games

“…To add to the confusion, many researchers using different criteria to describe the same things (for an overview, see Ortiz, 2020). While some researchers treat any deceptive action online as toxic (Buckels et al, 2014), deception is not always required by other researchers (Fichman and Sanfilippo, 2015). Other negative behaviors with a perceived hostile intent are also sometimes grouped into trolling, while other researchers treat them as separate phenomena, such as griefing and flaming (O'Sullivan and Flanagin, 2003;Coyne et al, 2009;Thacker and Griffiths, 2012).…”

A Dual-Identity Model of Responses to Deviance in Online Groups: Integrating Social Identity Theory and Expectancy Violations Theory

“…(e.g., new user behavior, mischievous comments); offensive online visual representations (avatars); unacceptable language (flaming, trolling); expressions of complex social problems (e.g., excessive self-disclosure, cyberbullying); and cybercrime (e.g., cyberstalking, malicious code, identity theft; see also Fichman & Sanfilippo, 2015;O'Sullivan & Flanagin, 2003;Smith, McLaughlin, & Osborne, 1998;Vandebosch & Cleemput, 2009). Users may perform these without awareness of their deviance, as attempts to work through their problems, or, as intentional behaviors.…”

The motives attributed to trolls in metapragmatic comments on three Hungarian left-wing political blogs

“…1. attracting other users' full attention (Hardaker 2010) 2. triggering intense unpleasant emotional reactions, such as annoyance or anger in others (Thacker and Griffiths 2012) 3. eliciting potentially offensive responses from others, which themselves can provoke further hurtful responses (Morrissey 2010) 4. causing, perpetuating or escalating conflict (Galán-García et al 2014) 5. disrupting the interaction (Binns 2012) 6. deceiving or manipulating others (Donath 1999).…”

“…1. repeating the same utterance (Shachaf and Hara 2010) 2. posting irrelevant or meaningless information (Morrissey 2010) 3. posting misleading or factually incorrect information (Hardaker 2010) 4. disseminating bad and/or dangerous advice (Donath 1999) 5. ignoring, despising, rejecting, or attacking the core values of the interaction (Utz 2005) 6. (hypo)criticising others often for an offence of which the critic was also guilty (Hardaker 2013) 7. directly insulting, threatening or otherwise attacking others (Herring et al 2002).…”