Summary by Jamie Knowles and Dr. Nicola Gray
Online trolling (the act of provoking others online using deception and harmful behavior) can have a long lasting negative impact on the victim. This study looked at whether factors such as psychopathy, sadism and empathy could predict involvement in online trolling behaviors. The authors asked 415 participants to complete questionnaires that assessed their trolling behaviors, levels of psychopathic traits, sadism and empathy. The results showed that higher levels of psychopathy and sadism predicted trolling behavior. Interestingly, they also found that lower levels of affective empathy (being able to feel the emotions of others and respond to them) and higher levels of cognitive empathy (being able to recognize and understand another’s emotions) also predicted trolling behaviors. These findings suggest that the prototypical online troll is high in trait psychopathic traits and sadism and is able to cognitively understand the emotional distress they cause through their trolling behavior without empathizing with their victim’s emotional suffering.
A more in-depth summary of this article is now available on the Members Page.
Reference: Sest, N., & March, E. (2017). Constructing the cyber-troll: Psychopathy, sadism, and empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 119, 69-72.
