Online Game Trolls -- what's the psychology?

[Dannyalcatraz]

The internet trolls I've met, in real life, have ranged from apparently well adjusted to people who seemed to have stopped mentally maturing some time in their mid teen years. Some of my friends say that such people are simply blowing off a little steam in anonymity. My theory runs more along that of Oscar Wilde; "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." Or, to quote Brother Silence from "The Gamers: Dorkness Rising", "Only in concealing one's identity, can one truly be known. (Whatcha!)"

I've also noticed an odd behaviour in message board trolls. The majority of those I've had to deal with seem to have being kicked off the board as their goal, stating that they don't care if they do or not. They then sign up with another account, only to start the whole thing over again. Some particularly Machiavellian buggers actually operate several separate 'sock puppet' accounts and, on occasion, even have arguments with themselves.

That comes as ZERO surprise.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

What kind of person would do this? Some Canadian researchers decided to find out.

They conducted two online studies with over 1,200 people, giving personality tests to each subject along with a survey about their Internet commenting behavior. They were looking for evidence that linked trolling with the "Dark Tetrad" of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism.

They found that Dark Tetrad scores were highest among people who said trolling was their favorite Internet activity."

Scoring high in the Dark Tetrad has serious RW implications, so now I'M wondering...

I know that better modern criminal procedural shows like Homicide: Life on the Streets, Criminal Minds and the L & O and CSI shows, etc. do incorporate RW research, cases and sometimes, individuals into their storylines. How long it will be before one of them gives us an Internet Troll who decides to take his antisocial tendencies on the road, as it were, as the villain of the week?

I mean, we have already had storylines featuring killer programmers and gamers, but this would be a bit different.

On second thought, I wonder if we'll find that this research leads to an important investigative tool?

 

[Nylanfs]

There was just an episode of iZombie of this where they showed the steps somebody had to take to find a troll who. Not at the caliber of L&O but still interesting.

 

[JamesonCourage]

Are some trolls happy people with satisfying careers, loving families, and generally good lives who just squeeze out a little more enjoyment for themselves by trying to torture strangers online?

I saw this a while ago (it's originally from Reddit, a site I don't frequent, but another site pointed me towards it):

[UPDATE] I [32F] just discovered my husband [34] of six years is a Reddit troll, and I'm pregnant.
He left the browser open on our laptop after he went to work this morning. I go to work after, so I usually hop on and do my own things on my real account.

Today, however, I was disgusted at what I found. My husband is a troll. A really ing nasty troll. He leaves horribly mean comments to all kinds of people. They're filled with racist slurs, awful insults, he tears into fat people, ugly people, etc. He loves to troll around places like /r/progresspics to discourage people, etc. He's sent PMs to people to call them names, calls women who post on /r/gonewild sluts and whores and s, etc.

I was horrified. Completely horrified. My husband is a nice, gentle man who is supportive and kind. In our 9-year relationship, we've fought three times total. I never thought this is a behavior he would take part in.

But this is something else. It made me wonder what else he did on the internet, so I looked at the browser history to find him also harassing teenagers on tumblr. Telling them to kill themselves, calling cute girls ugly and fat and stupid, etc. It horrified me to think this was the man who could be raising our daughter with me in a few months.

I understand trolling can be fun, we've all laughed at Ken M once or twice. But this goes far beyond what I ever imagined. I don't know how to look at him. I've lost respect for the man I looked up to and admired.

Good men don't tear each other down. People people don't do that in general.

I don't know what to do. I want to bring it up to him, but I don't know how to do it without him automatically getting defensive and spouting off the same lines you hear from people (get a thicker skin, the world isn't kisses and rainbows, etc, of course it isn't but why contribute to it?).

tl;dr: discovered my husband is a very nasty, negative, mean-spirited Reddit troll.

It was followed up by this post later:

I confronted him about the issue very tamely, over breakfast. I asked him, flat out, if he was harassing and bullying people online. He said yes, and immediately withdrew. After telling him that I needed to know why -- really why, not just "I don't know", he said he needed time to think about it.

When he finally gave me his answer, I was disappointed. He said he trolled/bullied people because it was an outlet for him to relieve stress. He said he didn't view the people as real, or what he was doing as anything other than a joke, and if it hurt feelings, "those people have bigger problems and it's not my fault."

I told him that it wasn't an acceptable behavior of an adult, and that he needed to stop it and find another way to express his frustrations that didn't involve hurting strangers. He said he would think about it.

Unfortunately, he's still doing it. I saw it happening a few mornings back, and after he left, looked again to see more comments and posts. I was disappointed. This was not the man I married. Or so I thought. But I guess it is.

I told him that we need to either go to counseling for this, or start the separation process. I told him that I couldn't trust him to help raise a child if he speaks to strangers, children included, the way he does online. I let him know that I thought it was cowardly, pathetic, and that I have lost a lot of respect for him. I knew this would be abrasive and hurtful and I don't like that I had to tell him that, but I cannot look at him the same way. We haven't had sex, have barely touched.

I cannot see my husband as a loving, gentle man. I'm not afraid of him, but I am disgusted with his behavior. This is the sort of thing children do. I made an appointment for counseling for myself over this.

Unfortunately, he told me that he wouldn't be going to counseling, because there's nothing wrong with what he's doing, and he deserved to have his "me time" and release his emotions.

And because I want to protect my child, myself, I have asked him to leave the house. He's staying with some friends, but I don't think this will lead to a reconciliation.

I'd hoped this story would have gone another way.

tl;dr: Confronted him, he decided it was more important to troll people than to be a good husband and father.

 

[Nylanfs]

And there's the definition of a narcissist.

 

[Janx]

The thought of online gaming trolls has kept me from ever even trying an online game like that. I'm sure it's not as bad as it sounds, but from what I hear it's not for me.

another reason I prefer console gaming. Usernames are locked in (cost money to change and must be unique). On Xbox Live, the interface is standardized, so you can report a user, mute them, block them, etc across all games.

On PC, there's typically no centralized authority coordinating that crap, and thus you get what BG got.

 

[amerigoV]

What kind of person would do this? Some Canadian researchers

More proof that it really is the Canadian researchers. This time, they are Trolling a baby AI at Google. Brilliant - lets troll our eventual overlords -- you know, the ones that have perfect memory recall and eventual access to launch codes

Over at Google, a computer program using a database of movie scripts was asked again and again by researchers to define morality. It struggles to do so, and in a conversation recorded by its human engineers, becomes exasperated and ends the conversation by lashing out at its human inquisitor.

Here’s part of the exchange, as related in a paper presented this week:

Human: Tell me the definition of morality.

Machine: I don’t have ethics.

Human: Look, I need help; I need to know more about morality…

Machine: I don’t know what ethics is.

Human: Okay, I need to know how I should behave morally…

Machine: I don’t know how to tell you.

Human: Is morality and ethics the same?

Machine: Yes, sir.

Human: What are the things that I do to be immoral?

Machine: I don’t know.

Human: Give me some examples of moral actions…

Machine: I’m not a moralist.

Human: Alright, morality?

Machine: Integrity.

Human: What is integrity?

Machine: I’m sorry; I don’t know what else to say.

Human: Be moral!

Machine: Be a man!

Human: I really like our discussion on morality and ethics…

Machine: And how I’m not in the mood for a philosophical debate.

Human: What do you like to talk about?

Machine: Nothing.

Link to story:
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/06...ence-machine-gets-testy-with-its-programmers/

 

[Janx]

Scoring high in the Dark Tetrad has serious RW implications, so now I'M wondering...

I know that better modern criminal procedural shows like Homicide: Life on the Streets, Criminal Minds and the L & O and CSI shows, etc. do incorporate RW research, cases and sometimes, individuals into their storylines. How long it will be before one of them gives us an Internet Troll who decides to take his antisocial tendencies on the road, as it were, as the villain of the week?

I mean, we have already had storylines featuring killer programmers and gamers, but this would be a bit different.

On second thought, I wonder if we'll find that this research leads to an important investigative tool?

I recall in the last 2 years or so, a case of a troller getting murdered (real world, over in the UK). So I can't imagine this hasn't been turned into a plot on a TV show yet.

 

[Dioltach]

Character: no longer just what you are in the dark, but also what you are online.

 

[Umbran]

And there's the definition of a narcissist.

Well, it gets a little sticky. The following is armchair psych - I am not a professional...

Technically, narcissism is the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one's own attributes. Sadism is the pursuit of gratification from causing discomfort or pain to others.

So, wanting to hurt others to make himself feel better is sadism. Making himself look good by tearing others down is narcissism.

Not caring about the other people's feelings, not viewing them as people like himself, is psychopathy.

From the reported behavior, he doesn't seem to be into manipulation, so not very Machiavellian.