Team DailyPedia
The Internet has given birth to online trolls or people who post derogatory, extraneous, and even off-topic messages on blogs, forums, and other social media platforms.
Online trolls, like what most of us have suspected all along, are sadistic, psychopathic and deceitful, according to science.
In a 2014 study carried out by researchers at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, it was found that online trolling positively correlated with the Dark Tetrad of Personality: Sadism, Machiavellianism (being deceitful and cunning), and psychopathy.
To arrive at this conclusion, the researchers asked participants to answer questions designed to determine their personalities as well as Internet use and behavior. The researchers then analyzed the answers for correlations between online trolling and the tendencies to display Dark Tetrad personality variables.
The “self-reported enjoyment of trolling” was found to be positively correlated with sadism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism. Sadism emerged as the trait with “most robust associations” with online trolling.
Their findings showed that both trolls and sadists experience “sadistic glee” when causing suffering to others.
‘These people aren’t necessarily serial killers or bad people, but they get an emotional reward from causing or observing the suffering of others,” ASAP Science explained.
