Everyday Sadism and online trolling

Online trolling spans multiple platforms and contributes to many Internet users feeling demoralised and depressed. This post summarises some key findings and psychological insights featured in an article (Buckells et al, 2019).

The authors carried out several tests and found some interesting findings.

• Online trolling tended to feature individuals who can be classified as everyday sadists - That is individuals whose pleasure derives from inflicting pain or playing violent video games to having an overall appetite for cruelty. The authors note that this sadism necessarily requires a deficit of empathy.

• Both trolls and sadists experienced pleasure when observing visual representations of people in emotional or physical pain.

• Citing other work (Trémolière and Djeriouat (2016)) the authors note that sadists make moral decisions based on pleasure rather the non-sadists who are guided by negative emotional states such as disgust or anger. A sadist who finds behavioural transgressions as funny is expected to find them excusable.

• Trolls and sadists minimise the harm caused by trolling and sadistic behaviours.

Concluding remarks: The authors did note that not all trolls are sadists. And suggest the need for further work.

References: Buckels, EE, Trapnell, PD, Andjelovic, T, Paulhus, DL. Internet trolling and everyday sadism: Parallel effects on pain perception and moral judgment. Journal of Personality. 2019; 87: 328– 340. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12393

image credits: Sharuka862/pixabay