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http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/climate_desk/2014/02/internet_troll_personality_study_machiavellianism_narcissism_psychopathy.html

  Quote
Internet Trolls Really Are Horrible People

In the past few years, the science of Internet trollology has made some strides. Last year, for instance, we learned that by hurling insults and inciting discord in online comment sections, so-called Internet trolls (who are frequently anonymous) have a polarizing effect on audiences, leading to politicization, rather than deeper understanding of scientific topics.

That’s bad, but it’s nothing compared with what a new psychology paper has to say about the personalities of trolls themselves. The research, conducted by Erin Buckels of the University of Manitoba and two colleagues, sought to directly investigate whether people who engage in trolling are characterized by personality traits that fall in the so-called Dark Tetrad: Machiavellianism (willingness to manipulate and deceive others), narcissism (egotism and self-obsession), psychopathy (the lack of remorse and empathy), and sadism (pleasure in the suffering of others).

It is hard to overplay the results: The study found correlations, sometimes quite significant, between these traits and trolling behavior. What’s more, it also found a relationship between all Dark Tetrad traits (except for narcissism) and the overall time that an individual spent, per day, commenting on the Internet.

In the study, trolls were identified in a variety of ways. One was by simply asking survey participants what they “enjoyed doing most” when on online comment sites, offering five options: “debating issues that are important to you,” “chatting with others,” “making new friends,” “trolling others,” and “other.” Here’s how different responses about these Internet commenting preferences matched up with responses to questions designed to identify Dark Tetrad traits:

140214_CDESK_MachiavellianTraits.jpg.CRO

E.E. Buckels et al, "Trolls just want to have fun," Personality and Individual Differences, 2014.

To be sure, only 5.6 percent of survey respondents actually specified that they enjoyed “trolling.” By contrast, 41.3 percent of Internet users were “non-commenters,” meaning they didn’t like engaging online at all. So trolls are, as has often been suspected, a minority of online commenters, and an even smaller minority of overall Internet users.

The researchers conducted multiple studies, using samples from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk but also of college students, to try to understand why the act of trolling seems to attract this type of personality. They even constructed their own survey instrument, which they dubbed the Global Assessment of Internet Trolling, or GAIT, containing the following items:

I have sent people to shock websites for the lulz.

I like to troll people in forums or the comments section of websites.

I enjoy griefing other players in multiplayer games.

The more beautiful and pure a thing is, the more satisfying it is to corrupt.

Yes, some people actually say they agree with such statements. And again, doing so was correlated with sadism in its various forms, with psychopathy, and with Machiavellianism. Overall, the authors found that the relationship between sadism and trolling was the strongest, and that indeed, sadists appear to troll because they find it pleasurable. “Both trolls and sadists feel sadistic glee at the distress of others,” they wrote. “Sadists just want to have fun ... and the Internet is their playground!”

The study comes as websites, particularly at major media outlets, are increasingly weighing steps to rein in trollish behavior. Last year Popular Science did away with its comments sections completely, citing research on the deleterious effects of trolling, and YouTube also took measures to rein in trolling.

But study author Buckels actually isn’t sure that fix is a realistic one. “Because the behaviors are intrinsically motivating for sadists, comment moderators will likely have a difficult time curbing trolling with punishments (e.g., banning users),” she said by email. “Ultimately, the allure of trolling may be too strong for sadists, who presumably have limited opportunities to express their sadistic interests in a socially-desirable manner.”

 

 

 

Posted
  On 9/22/2014 at 5:36 PM, papasmurfbell said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5HUut9ybMo

I really liked Eric. He was funny as hell.

 

 

 

http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/rd6gao/terry-gilliam

Colbert does a great job with a comedy genius.

Glad to see this posted. I was legitimately crushed when I heard Eric died. He was by far my favorite caller. I would actually check the OnDemand listing on Sirius XM for each episode to see if he called in and then fast forward to his segment.

 

On the surface the amount of shit Eric got was so bad for someone in his situation, but Eric was such a little asshole you wouldn't feel bad for him. Once again that sounds bad, but his confidence and expectation of entitlement was at such a high level that he forced you to treat him like a normal person, and bust his balls as such. In the end, I would say it was a good thing because he was truly treated like a normal person and no one looked down on him for his disability. Johnny Fratto said it best: Eric must have been an evil dictator in another lifetime based of his personality and he was cursed to his disability."

 

I still listen to Stern and hope to hear "Eric the Actor is on the line." It was great to here Kinmel and Arquette call in with their condolences, as well as all the other celebs who reached out. #byefornow

Posted
  On 9/25/2014 at 9:29 PM, papasmurfbell said:

Anyone see Gotham. I love it's casting and style but I am not good with how they dramatically altered the Batman timeline. Salina Kyle should be younger. Montoya should not predate Gordon as a detective. Bullock should be at least 15 yrs younger than Gordon. Another thing. When did Alfred become australian?

I want to check this show out. Have it on my to watch list on Hulu.

Posted
  On 9/29/2014 at 3:47 PM, thundercleetz said:

I want to check this show out. Have it on my to watch list on Hulu.

It's a great show, I dvr it so I'll watch it tonight before ncis.

Posted

Does anyone know the precise minute last night's football game kicked off? I know programming says 8:00 PM, a guy posted a bet at 8:28 last night on another site, and we are trying to see if it's legit or not. I know when it says 8:00 kickoff they didn't kickoff right away.

Posted

Watched the Gotham intro episode the other day... not a fan at all. Just way too melodramatic for me. I guess that's very much the comic book style sometimes, but I found myself grimacing and almost laughing frequently - especially the interactions between the main two. Casting was good and the mood was good, but it was just too goofy for me. Felt a lot like those "fairy tale" shows on ABC and other channels these days.

Posted

I know very little about DC comics characters but I heard so many good things about "The Flash" that I watched it the other night. I thought it was good, lighter than most DC things.

Posted

First weekend in November. It'll buy you an hour for a few weeks but not long. Will also cost you the already early evening sun.

Posted

Pops you still watching Gotham? Where are they going with this? I have the penguin figured, who is Jada Smith portraying? Gordons partner that has to be 2 face..

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