Trolls just want to have fun

Research integrity: Don't let transparency damage science

“…Scientists should ignore critics who are abusive or illogical and those that make the same points repeatedly despite rebuttals. Internet trolling has been associated with sadism and psychopathy 9 . Engagement with such bad-faith actors can imperil scientists' well-being in a way that university ethics committees would never condone in research on human subjects.…”

Discovering unique profiles of adolescent information and communication technology (ICT) use: Are ICT use preferences associated with identity and behaviour development?

“…For example, engagement in violent video game play has been linked to antisocial behaviour, higher degrees of externalizing behaviours, aggression, depression, reduced academic performance, as well as elevated psychopathy among adolescent samples (DeLisi, Vaughn, Gentile, Anderson, & Shook, 2012;Milani et al, 2015). Other research has linked cyber-trolling activity (i.e., unprovoked hostile, destructive, or disruptive online behaviour) to indices of sadism, deriving pleasure from other people's pain or humiliation, and Machiavellianism, where personal gain is put above normative societal principles of equality (Buckels, Trapnell, & Paulhus, 2014).…”

“…Future work could consider how high rates of malicious activity over several social networking platforms by youth may be associated with personality traits related to sadism, Machiavellianism, narcissism, or psychopathic tendencies. Research into these four 'dark' personalities in relation to online behaviour is relatively uncharted (but see Buckels et al, 2014), and with the paradoxical mix of decreasing privacy and digital anonymity, it is critical to distinguish the different types of antisocial personalities that may be liberated in unmonitored online behaviour.…”

Intelligence and Information Gathering Through Deliberative Crowdsourcing

“…The proposed Concept 2 and Concept 3 have overlap in the challenges with online trolls. Online trolls, the flame throwing, mostly anonymous commenters, diminish the value of the free flow of ideas found in the comment sections (Buckels, Trapnell, & Paulhus, 2014;CBC News, 2014;Findlay, 2014;LaBarre, 2013;West & McDonnell, 2013). Trolls spew their hatred, falsehoods, and negativity with the veil of anonymity provided online.…”

“…Trolls and their comments are creating "a false sense that a topic is more controversial than it really is" and do so because "when it comes to online commenting, throwing bombs gets more attention than being nice, and makes readers double down on their preexisting beliefs" (West & McDonnell, 2013). Buckels et al (2014) found in their research on Internet trolls that the trolls do their work because they enjoy the harm it causes, or more specifically: "trolling correlated positively with sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism" and is described as an "[i]nternet manifestation of everyday sadism" (p. 1).…”