Troll story: The dark tetrad and online trolling revisited with a glance at humor

Abstract

Internet trolling is considered a negative form of online interaction that can have detrimental effects on people’s well-being. This pre-registered, experimental study had three aims: first, to replicate the association between internet users’ online trolling behavior and the Dark Tetrad of personality (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism) established in prior research; second, to investigate the effect of experiencing social exclusion on people’s motivation to engage in trolling behavior; and third, to explore the link between humor styles and trolling behavior. In this online study, participants were initially assessed on their personality, humor styles, and global trolling behavior. Next, respondents were randomly assigned to a social inclusion or exclusion condition. Thereafter, we measured participants’ immediate trolling motivation. Results drawn from 1,026 German-speaking participants indicate a clear correlation between global trolling and all facets of the Dark Tetrad as well as with aggressive and self-defeating humor styles. However, no significant relationship between experiencing exclusion/inclusion and trolling motivation emerged. Our quantile regression findings suggest that psychopathy and sadism scores have a significant positive effect on immediate trolling motivation after the experimental manipulation, whereas Machiavellianism and narcissism did not explain variation in trolling motivation. Moreover, being socially excluded had generally no effect on immediate trolling motivation, apart from participants with higher immediate trolling motivation, for whom the experience of social exclusion actually reduced trolling motivation. We show that not all facets of the Dark Tetrad are of equal importance for predicting immediate trolling motivation and that research should perhaps focus more on psychopathy and sadism. Moreover, our results emphasize the relevance of quantile regression in personality research and suggest that even psychopathy and sadism may not be suitable predictors for low levels of trolling behavior.

Psychometric Properties of the Revised Trolling Questionnaire in Argentinean Adults

“…They also coincide -albeit partially-with Buckels et al (2014), who found associations between Machiavellianism and psychopathy but did not detect correlations between narcissism and trolling. However, another study did find the latter association (Furian & March, 2023), while Craker and March (2016) and Volkmer et al (2023) detected significant correlations between psychopathy and R-GAIT. The fact that in the present study, trolling was associated both with Machiavellianism and psychopathy is not surprising due to the aggressive and manipulative features of trolling (Hardaker, 2013).…”

Do Dark Humour Users Have Dark Tendencies? Relationships between Dark Humour, the Dark Tetrad, and Online Trolling

“…Hypothesis 2 explored the relationships between dark humour and online trolling due to past research linking this behaviour to other negative styles of humour and katagelasticism [ 10 , 42 ]. Hypothesis 3, overall, aimed to better understand online trolls.…”

“…Quantitative research has sought to explain individual differences in trolling behaviours through personality approaches and humour-related motivations. Several studies [ 9 , 40 , 41 , 42 ] found psychopathy, as well as Machiavellianism and sadism, most strongly predicted online trolling. For instance, [ 9 ] concluded that online trolling is an “internet manifestation of everyday sadism” and that the internet is essentially a sadist “playground”.…”

“…Ref. [ 42 ] also demonstrated that trolling was associated with aggressive and self-defeating humour. However, the humour studied in this research is limited to the four humour styles assessed in the Humour Styles Questionnaire [ 44 ].…”

Trust and Safety on Social Media: Understanding the Impact of Anti-Social Behavior and Misinformation on Content Moderation and Platform Governance

“…The motives for engaging in online anti-social behavior are varied, as studies have indicated. Social media users may participate in such acts for various reasons, including seeking revenge, seeking amusement, seeking social approval, displaying sadistic tendencies, or simply due to a lack of empathy (e.g., Santre, 2023; Soares et al, 2023; Vismara et al, 2022; Volkmer et al, 2023).…”