On the Psychology of Trolls

Most of my posts are pretty serious…but from time to time I like to write about something a little less serious. I got to thinking about the psychology of trolls after seeing the results of a very effective troll on another blog.

For those that don’t know, the kind of troll I’m talking about is not the kind that lives under bridges. I’m talking about a troll of a different type. An Internet troll.

“An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial and usually irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.^{” (1–yes I’m citing wikipedia…if you don’t like it too bad).}

Trolls are said to use “flamebait.” In that they post incendiary comments that elicit flaming emotional responses from other readers. Responding to a troll is called “feeding the troll.” In a social learning or behavioral perspective, this would be providing reinforcement for the troll…it will increase their trolling behavior.

Some research on email-based trolls takes into account the notion of deindividuation, a social psychological process which in which factors are purported to reduce an individual’s identity. While interesting, and probably plays some role, I’ll just add some pure speculation.

In some instances, trolls may be passive-aggressive individuals…people who do not feel comfortable expressing their hostility in direct ways. However, with the anonymity provided by the Internet, they feel less inhibited and more directly incite others.

In other instances, trolls may desire attention, consciously or unconsciously, and by trolling and posting flamebait, they can get a great deal of attention. Thus the notion of “feeding the troll” is apt. The food in this case is the attention provided by an emotional counterresponse, or any response at all.

Some trolls may have an organized agenda. In other words, a set of atheist trolls, might set out to try “evangelize,” believers to their cause. I’m not trying to just pick on atheistic trolls here, but that was the example that came to mind….probably because of my recent post. They may copy and paste incendiary comments or talking points from other favorite troll hangouts. Yes…trolls may run in packs…

Trolls can be very skilled at “pushing the buttons” of a reader. Sometimes, they seem to know just the right thing to say in their flamebait to elicit the most extreme flaming response.

If you want to see a fascinating example of troll behavior, take a look at the comments on Dr. Helen’s recent post, “I love being a doctor, but I hate practicing medicine.”

The amount of comments responding to the flamebait is incredible. The troll seems to “eat up” the attention, and provokes a great deal of emotion from a number of otherwise professional and mature individuals.

So, my advice to frequent message board users, and blog readers is, DNFTT (do not feed the trolls). But so it goes, trolls will continue to be fed…because it’s so irresistible to lash out against these creatures. I suppose that’s another issue entirely…the psychology of responding to flame bait. I’ll wait awhile on that until I need another reprieve from more serious posting.

(1). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29

UPDATE:  See The Christian Scribbler’s post on Trolls in Biblical Times.