Don’t threaten me and my dark side or even self-harm won’t stop me from hurting you

Internet trolling and everyday sadism: Parallel effects on pain perception and moral judgment

“…To date, some of the most compelling evidence for everyday sadism involves pleasure-driven aggression evoked in the lab Chester, 2017;Chester & DeWall, 2017a, 2017b. Chronic appetitive aggression may be contrasted with instrumentally motivated aggression (Jones & Paulhus, 2010) and masochistic self-harm (Lämmle, Oedl, & Ziegler, 2014), which are linked to other personality tendencies.…”

Our Vulnerable Dark Side—Two Laboratory Approaches

“…Past research has linked the Dark Triad traits to physical harm in real life, such as violent delinquency [ 4 ], or in lab situations, e.g., subjecting others to (white) noise in response to (perceived) provocation [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. Moreover, there is initial evidence that the Dark Triad is not limited to other-directed but extends to self-directed aggressive and harmful behaviors [ 8 ]. A questionnaire-based and a laboratory study each revealed that individuals’ dark side is also associated with perceived victimization in workplace settings (e.g., in reaching one’s goals, job performance [ 9 ]) and willingness to subject oneself to white noise when others were also subjected to it.…”

“…The use of white noise in laboratory studies was typically triggered by an upward comparison (i.e., comparison with a person who appears to be superior in certain ways) in combination with a monetary reward. Moreover, it has been shown that this behavior is related to the common core of the Dark Triad—the common core is assumed to be a tendency to maximize one’s own benefit, while disregarding, accepting, or malevolently provoking costs for others [ 10 ]—but also encompasses a smaller yet specific relation with the narcissistic part of the Dark Triad [ 8 ]. Thus, in line with previous findings that narcissism is associated with aggression in (non-)competitive settings [ 11 ], upward comparisons reflecting self-esteem threats [ 12 ] have been hypothesized to link narcissism [ 13 ] with self-aggression inflicted while engaging in aggression against perceived threats.…”

“…In contrast to aggression directed at others, paradigms measuring laboratory-induced self-harming behavior are rather sparse. So far, to our knowledge, only an active and direct white noise paradigm has been used, in which inflicting white noise on others also meant having to endure white noise oneself [ 8 ]. Similarly, but without an opponent, the challenge of a disengaged mind that can be resolved by administering electric shocks [ 18 ] has also been studied in the context of self-harming behavior.…”

“…This is because ego threat activates vulnerable narcissists’ sense of entitlement to maintain their grandiose self-views and seek out attention and praise [ 29 ]. Based on this and the previous finding that upward comparisons can trigger combined other- and self-harming behavior [ 8 ], the first study included the challenge of losing to an opponent. The underlying assumption is that people high in narcissism would engage in self-harm if this allowed the avoidance of self-esteem threats [ 12 ] and would try to reinforce their ego [ 30 ].…”