On The Psychology Of Trolls
Tick
---
---
On the Psychology of Trolls
Most of my posts are pretty serious…but from time to time I like to
write about something a little less serious. I got to thinking about
the psychology of trolls after seeing the results of a very effective
troll on another blog.
For those that don’t know, the kind of troll I’m talking about is not
the kind that lives under bridges. I’m talking about a troll of a
different type. An Internet troll.
“An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who
posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an
online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room,
with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response
or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.” (1–yes I’m citing
wikipedia…if you don’t like it too bad).
Trolls are said to use “flamebait.” In that they post incendiary
comments that elicit flaming emotional responses from other readers.
Responding to a troll is called “feeding the troll.” In a social
learning or behavioral perspective, this would be providing
reinforcement for the troll…it will increase their trolling behavior.
Some research on email-based trolls takes into account the notion of
deindividuation, a social psychological process which in which factors
are purported to reduce an individual’s identity. While interesting,
and probably plays some role, I’ll just add some pure speculation.
In some instances, trolls may be passive-aggressive individuals…people
who do not feel comfortable expressing their hostility in direct ways.
However, with the anonymity provided by the Internet, they feel less
inhibited and more directly incite others.
In other instances, trolls may desire attention, consciously or
unconsciously, and by trolling and posting flamebait, they can get a
great deal of attention. Thus the notion of “feeding the troll” is
apt. The food in this case is the attention provided by an emotional
counterresponse, or any response at all.
Some trolls may have an organized agenda. In other words, a set of
atheist trolls, might set out to try “evangelize,” believers to their
cause. I’m not trying to just pick on atheistic trolls here, but that
was the example that came to mind….probably because of my recent post.
They may copy and paste incendiary comments or talking points from
other favorite troll hangouts. Yes…trolls may run in packs…
Trolls can be very skilled at “pushing the buttons” of a reader.
Sometimes, they seem to know just the right thing to say in their
flamebait to elicit the most extreme flaming response.
If you want to see a fascinating example of troll behavior, take a
look at the comments on Dr. Helen’s recent post, “I love being a
doctor, but I hate practicing medicine.”
The amount of comments responding to the flamebait is incredible. The
troll seems to “eat up” the attention, and provokes a great deal of
emotion from a number of otherwise professional and mature
individuals.
So, my advice to frequent message board users, and blog readers is,
DNFTT (do not feed the trolls). But so it goes, trolls will continue
to be fed…because it’s so irresistible to lash out against these
creatures. I suppose that’s another issue entirely…the psychology of
responding to flame bait. I’ll wait awhile on that until I need
another reprieve from more serious posting.
Peter Black
>So, my advice to frequent message board users, and blog readers is,
>DNFTT (do not feed the trolls).
Hear, hear!
evilzona
lol, speaking of drunken drivel...
evilzona
lol, sheesh. seems like here we go again!
hey, wheres tee. I'm sure she has some wit to post.
Peter Black
>So, my advice to frequent message board users, and blog readers is,
>DNFTT (do not feed the trolls).
That advice is never observed.
Here is Tom; I think most people here just ignore him:
http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/ferouscranus.htm
And here are evilzona and BigArtie:
http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/bigdogmetoo.htm
evilzona
heres dickhead and tickhead, oh and billy too
http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/blowhard.htm
evilzona
of course, they could be this too
http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/crybaby.htm
Art
Art
lol
i like it