Internet-troll behavior involves repeatedly posting messages that start arguments and upset others. Similar types of undesirable social behavior include schoolhouse bullying and vandalism. Why do some individuals engage in anti-social acts like these? Let’s focus for now on troll postings. According to learning theory, one likely reason is that these individuals obtain reinforcement for their behavior by seeing the discomforted reactions of others.
Taking a problem-solving perspective, we can look for suggestions of Internet experts on how to deal with troll behavior. The usual two recommendations given by Internet experts for dealing with troll behavior are (1) to ask to have the offending individuals removed from groups and barred from comment sites and (2) to ignore the troll postings (refuse to engage with the trolling person). Both ideas involve elements of extinction (denying reinforcement for a behavior). While the methods could work well for a particular group or site, the trolling person is likely to move on to another group or site to annoy others. The development of alternative, socially desirable behaviors that serve the same functions as posting troll comments is crucial to eliminating the behavior in a person,. However, that would usually require the trolling person to seek help from a mental health professional for the problem — something I doubt happens often.
What are your thoughts about how to modify Internet-troll behavior?
John Malouff, PhD, JD. Assoc Prof of Psychology
Team effort must be made to ignore the troll postings if the person can not be removed from th group. It only takes one person to take the bait for trolling behaviour to achieve its goal and possibly continue.
I wonder if trolling behaviour generally occurs out of boredom and if it’s mainly a method drawing attention to oneself. Do these individuals just want to be heard/noticed because they don’t get any attention in the real world settings?
If this is the case then maybe others can try to steer the conversation in a more positive way and assist individuals to express their need to be noticed in a more constructive manner.
Hi YOLO. Your comment reminds me of a similar sort of problem — the bane of Lifeline phone counsellors — individuals who call so that they can talk about made-up sex matters. They do this for their own sexual excitement, which must be substantial, because a single individual might make a hundred calls a day. Lifeline has tried many methods of dealing with sex callers, but nothing works well. Eventually, Lifeline asks the phone company to block calls from the person.
How do phone counsellors identify made-up sex matters from the genuine? Do they just treat the call like a telephone sex line? Also once the counsellors suspect that the caller is doing it for excitement, do they try to offer counselling to the individuals for this issue or do they just get a stern talking to? I’m assuming some people might even like the idea of getting caught and being reprimanded for doing something taboo (same goes for trolling in a sense). However, if they are made to feel like there’s a genuine concern and issue to what they are doing, this might turn them off the behaviour, at least towards that consellor?
I believe that internet trolls post because they like antagonizing people, it is easy to tell everyone to ignore something but someone is going to be upset by what is posted and have an immediate reaction. I am not sure if you can define why a troll exists as I am sure it varies between each case, from being bored to needing some form of interaction or possibly doing it because they feel the need to be hated.
I think the best way to deal with them is honestly to play along with whatever they are saying, let it roll off your back and make jokes along with them, they will soon get bored.
The counsellors could answer that better than I can — any of you out there reading this? I believe the callers gradually become more and more graphic. Also, they call again and again with the same ruse start, and Lifeline keeps a profile of the ruse to alert counsellors in the future. Lifeline may record their phone numbers too and distribute that info — I don’t know. Counsellors sometimes try to counsel the person ought of exploiting the counsellors with the sex calls, but that never seems to help, so the recommended strategy is to say I can’t help you with what you are calling about and then hang up.
Hi JD23. I agree that the reasons for the troll behaviour vary to some extent from person to person. That is also true for stalking behaviour, which can share a sort of compulsiveness with troll behaviour. It seems to me that young individuals who become targets of troll behaviour are better able to laugh it off.I just read about a study of the personality characteristics of Internet trolls. They tend to be narcissistic, Machiavellian, psychopathic, and sadistic. See:
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/climate_desk/2014/02/internet_troll_personality_study_machiavellianism_narcissism_psychopathy.html.