Internet Trolls Really Are Horrible People
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/climate_desk/2014/02/internet_troll_personality_study_machiavellianism_narcissism_psychopathy.htmlIn the past few years, the science of Internet trollology has made some strides. Last year, for instance, we learned that by hurling insults and inciting discord in online comment sections, so-called Internet trolls (who are frequently anonymous) have a polarizing effect on audiences, leading to politicization, rather than deeper understanding of scientific topics.
That’s bad, but it’s nothing compared with what a new psychology paper has to say about the personalities of trolls themselves. The research, conducted by Erin Buckels of the University of Manitoba and two colleagues, sought to directly investigate whether people who engage in trolling are characterized by personality traits that fall in the so-called Dark Tetrad: Machiavellianism (willingness to manipulate and deceive others), narcissism (egotism and self-obsession), psychopathy (the lack of remorse and empathy), and sadism (pleasure in the suffering of others).
It is hard to underplay the results: The study found correlations, sometimes quite significant, between these traits and trolling behavior. What’s more, it also found a relationship between all Dark Tetrad traits (except for narcissism) and the overall time that an individual spent, per day, commenting on the Internet.
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There is one thing about trolls that is universal.
They really believe in the power of words to hurt people.
This is what makes them such easy prey. 
I used to post at another forum for the deaf on a daily basis. There's a deaf troll whom I will call Cuckoo Nut (that's what one irate poster called him) there who likes to pop in every now and then to stir things up there.
When Obama became President, he became obsessed with him and posted anything that he could get his hands on to make Obama look bad. He even posted something about Obama's baseball pitching abilities. We just laughed at him and said it's a good thing he's the President not a baseball player. It got so silly that his obsession with Obama became a joke.
He lied all the time as well despite people calling him on it.
He would try to force everyone to agree with him that the Tea Party was the solution. Quite a few people protested at that one. I got the impression he had a hard-on for the Tea Party and the Republicans because he viewed them as thuggish which was a good thing in his mind.
Harmless troll so far? Well there's more.
The deaf community can be rife with rumors like any tight knit communities but there's too many stories from reliable people about Cuckoo stalking other people if he clashed with them online for me to ignore.
And then there was that time he posted a failed commercial about a cat getting decapitated by a car sun roof. It wasn't gory or anything like that. He thought it was funny. Cuckoo couldn't believe it when no one shared his humor. Mods removed that thread; they would remove a lot of threads started by this guy.
Last fall he posted more thread about dead cats. That thread also got removed. He's also the one who's responsible for closing down the political forum on my other forum. Too many locked threads. 
A lot of people who know him rl wonder if he's a psychopath or psychotic. I've got a friend who's a psychologist and she thinks he's a psycho. Still others disagree and they think he's mentally ill.
I have this guy on block on my FB. He's scary.
I remember at least 10 years ago there was some quite good informal research posted here on how to recognize the type and protect both the board and individual posters from them. Some of it was of course framed humorously but the underlying intent was deadly serious. Trolls are dangerous.
On a lighter note, look for the name Dark Tetrad to show up soon as the name of a band or online game. 
Response to LiberalElite (Original post)
Response to deafskeptic (Reply #9)
