What Motivates an Internet Troll? The Science Behind the Internet‘s Least Favorite People

We‘ve all encountered them at one point or another – those infuriating online agitators known as internet trolls. They‘re the people who seem to live to provoke, harass, and disrupt online communities, turning civil discussions into virtual shouting matches and sending threads spiraling into chaos. But what makes someone become an internet troll in the first place? What twisted motivations underlie their toxic behavior? And most importantly, how can we, as individuals and online communities, effectively deal with trolls and minimize their corrosive impact?

In this in-depth article, we‘ll take a closer look at the science and psychology behind internet trolls. We‘ll explore the disturbing personality traits that many trolls share, the various tactics they employ to provoke their targets, and the complex motivations that fuel their disruptive behavior. We‘ll also provide concrete tips for dealing with trolls on an individual level and discuss potential solutions for curbing trolling on a broader societal scale. So put on your digital armor as we delve into the dark underbelly of the internet and shine a light on its least favorite denizens.

Defining Internet Trolls

Before we dive into the psychology of internet trolls, let‘s clarify exactly what we mean by the term. An internet troll is someone who deliberately posts inflammatory, offensive, or off-topic messages in online communities with the primary intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses. In other words, trolls are out to get a rise out of people by any means necessary, whether it‘s through outright insults, bad-faith arguments, or simply relentless annoyance.

Trolling can take many different forms, but some common tactics include:

• Flaming: Posting insults, name-calling, or otherwise inflammatory statements to provoke angry responses.
• Baiting: Making deliberately controversial statements to draw people into pointless debates.
• Derailing: Posting off-topic or irrelevant comments to divert discussions off track.
• Concern trolling: Participating in discussions under the guise of constructive criticism while subtly undermining the community.
• Griefing: Disrupting online gaming communities through uncooperative or harassing behavior.
• Doxing: Posting someone‘s private personal information online to intimidate or encourage harassment.

According to a 2014 survey by YouGov, 28% of Americans admitted to engaging in trolling behavior at some point. A 2017 Pew Research Center survey found that 41% of US adults had experienced online harassment, with political views being the most common reason. Clearly, trolling is not some small, isolated problem but a widespread issue that has serious consequences for online communities and public discourse as a whole.

The Dark Tetrad: Personality Traits of Trolls

So what kind of person actually enjoys harassing others online? While trolls can come from all walks of life, researchers have identified some disturbing personality traits that many of them share. Specifically, trolls tend to score high on measures of what‘s known as the "Dark Tetrad":

1. Narcissism: An inflated sense of self-importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, and a lack of empathy for others.
2. Machiavellianism: A personality type marked by manipulation, insincerity, and a focus on self-interest over morals.
3. Psychopathy: Characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impulsivity, remorselessness, and bold, disinhibited egotistical traits.
4. Sadism: Deriving pleasure from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others.

One 2014 study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences found that scores on Dark Tetrad personality traits were highest among people who said trolling was their favorite internet activity. Another 2017 study in the same journal surveyed 1,200 participants and found that both men and women with high scores in Dark Tetrad traits were more likely to engage in trolling.

Essentially, many trolls appear to be everyday sadists, wielding their digital anonymity as a weapon to mercilessly attack others solely for their own amusement. They have an insatiable hunger for cruelty, a need to feel powerful by provoking reactions in others, and a complete lack of empathy or remorse for the pain they cause.

Motivations and Tactics of Trolls

But while sadism is certainly a major motivating factor for many trolls, it‘s not the only one. Trolls can have a variety of different reasons for engaging in their disruptive behavior:

• Attention-seeking: For deeply lonely or insecure individuals, even negative attention in the form of angry reactions may be preferable to being ignored.
• Revenge: Some trolls lash out at others as retaliation for perceived wrongs, whether real or imagined.
• Ideology: Trolls may be motivated by a desire to promote or defend extreme political views by attacking opponents and "proving" the righteousness of their position.
• Power/control: By manipulating others‘ emotions and derailing discussions, trolls can create a false sense of power and control they otherwise lack in real life.
• Boredom: Some trolls simply engage in provocative behavior to pass the time and entertain themselves when bored.

Regardless of their individual motivations, trolls tend to operate using a common set of disingenuous tactics meant to provoke, deceive, and disrupt. One classic technique is "sealioning", in which the troll repeatedly pesters their target with endless bad-faith questions and demands for evidence, all while maintaining a thin veneer of civility. The goal is to exhaust the target and make them look unreasonable, even as the troll is the one engaging in harassment.

Other trolls rely on sock puppet accounts – fake secondary accounts used to back up their primary one or to pose as someone else entirely. They may masquerade as a member of a marginalized group in order to sow discord from within, or impersonate a specific individual to embarrass them. Trolls often try to bait people by making deliberately inflammatory political or ideological statements in the hope of provoking heated reactions that derail the discussion.

The relative anonymity of the internet only fuels such trolling by creating a dissociative effect. Freed from real-world consequences and unable to see the real pain they inflict on others, trolls operate in a bubble where empathy and compassion have no meaning. As Penny Arcade‘s famous cartoon put it, on the internet "normal person + anonymity + audience = total fuckwad".

The Harms of Trolling

For victims of trolling and the communities disrupted by it, the effects are far more serious than mere annoyance. Persistent trolling can inflict severe psychological distress, especially if the attacker is targeting characteristics like race, gender, or sexual orientation. Victims may develop anxiety, depression, or even PTSD from the sustained campaign of hate.

On a broader scale, trolling contributes to an atmosphere of toxicity that drives away productive members of online communities and makes people hesitant to participate authentically for fear of harassment. It can make members of frequently-targeted groups like women and minorities feel unwelcome and unsafe in digital spaces. Organized "troll armies" have also been weaponized to spread political propaganda, disinformation, and conspiracy theories, undermining trust in institutions and exacerbating social divisions.

Dealing with Trolls

So how can we effectively deal with internet trolls? The simplest piece of advice is often the hardest to follow: Don‘t feed them. Trolls want your attention and emotional reaction, so denying them that is the best way to get rid of them. Ignore their provocations and block or report them to moderators if possible. If more drastic action is needed, collect evidence of their harassment to provide to the relevant authorities.

It‘s also important for online communities to create an environment that discourages trolling in the first place. Clearly-enforced rules against hate speech, harassment, and other trolling tactics should be enacted. Moderation teams need to prioritize identifying and removing bad actors quickly before they can derail discussions. Some forums have experimented with making new members‘ posts subject to manual approval to weed out hit-and-run trolling.

On an individual level, the best defense against trolls is often a good offense in the form of digital literacy and critical thinking skills. Learning to spot common trolling tactics, fact-checking suspicious claims independently, and exercising caution before engaging with provocative content can go a long way in avoiding troll bait. Tools like block lists and anti-harassment apps can help filter out unwanted interactions.

Conclusion: Fighting Back Against Trolls

Ultimately, internet trolls are some of the least-favorite people on the internet for good reason. By using abusive and bad-faith tactics to provoke, harass, and spread misinformation, trolls make the internet a more treacherous and less authentically human place. Driven by a potent mix of dark personality traits and enabled by the anonymizing effect of digital spaces, trolls exploit the cracks in our social fabric for their own twisted amusement.

But just as trolls weaponize the unique properties of the internet for harm, so too can we use those same tools to fight back against their toxic influence. By denying the trolls the attention they crave, creating communities resilient to their provocations, and inoculating ourselves against their deceitful tactics, we can begin to reclaim our online spaces. In an era where the internet is increasingly the place where we live, work, and interact, this is nothing less than an existential necessity. The trolls may never fully disappear, but with awareness, solidarity, and digital savvy we can at least make the internet a little less dark.