A study by three scientists led by Erin Buchels from the University of Manitoba finds that so-called trolling on the Internet has many common characteristics with sadism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism, the dark side of the human personality. However, trolls are a minority of the minority on the Internet, since there are still few users who submit comments and among them there are few who stated in the University's online surveys that they participate with the purpose of trolling. Also, the degree of association of these negative elements with trolling depends on the time the user spends commenting on the Internet.
The most common characteristics were found between trolls and sadists - sadists troll because they derive particular pleasure from laughing at the expense of others.
Online trolling is defined as the practice of misleading people by commenting on serious current affairs, with the aim of causing chaos and making users look overly emotional or foolish. If someone gets offended, the troll intensifies his efforts even more, as he finds it particularly entertaining. This is why it is common to tell younger users to “Don't feed the trolls” (don't feed the trolls by commenting on their misleading comments).
Source: In.gr Technology
